mm 


IBRARYft. 


Or-' 


rtt 


PRESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 


PRESIDENT   GARFIELD 


AND   EDUCATION 


College 


B.    A.    HINSDALE,    A.M. 


PRESIDENT   OF   HIRAM    COLLEGE 


BOSTON 
JAMES  R.  OSGOOD   AND  COMPANY 

1882 


COPYRIGHT,  1881, 
BY  JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  AND  COMPANY. 


All  rights  reserved. 


JFranfclfn  Prf0«: 

RAND,  AVERY,  AND  COMPANY, 
BOSTON. 


PEEFAOE. 


THE   propriety  of  a  Hiram  College  Memorial  to 
President  Garfield  will  be  admitted  on  all  hands. 
It  was  in  Hiram  that  he  fitted  for  college,  and  that 
he    made    his    reputation    as   a   teacher   and   school- 
administrator.      Hiram  was  his   home  for  twenty-six 
years.     Much  of  that  time,  probably  one-half  of  it,  he 
spent  in  other  places  and  duties,  —  college,  the  army, 
and  Congress ;  but  Hiram  was  the  place  to  which  he 
looked  for  residence  and   rest.      To  those  who   have 
become  acquainted  with  him,  his  name  or   fame,  the 
last  four  years,  Mentor  means  more  than  Hiram ;  but 
.-    to  all  of  his  earlier  friends  Hiram  means  as  much  more 
"*    than  Mentor,  as  his  residence  in  the  one   place  was 
longer  than  his  residence  in  the  other. 

Nor  can  there  be  two  opinions  as  to  the  fitness  of 
such  a  memorial  as  is  here  attempted.  General  Gar- 
field  was  a  scholar  and  an  educator.  His  earliest 
fame  was  won  in  study  and  in  teaching.  He  was 
always  the  friend  and  advocate  of  education.  It  was 
in  Hiram  school  that  his  happiest  days  were  spent, 

5 


394707 


6  PREFACE. 

and  that  he  performed  the  work  which  in  late  years 
he  looked  back  upon  with  most  satisfaction.  Hence, 
such  of  his  utterances  concerning  education  and  edu- 
cators as  have  been  preserved,  attended  by  suitable 
memorials  of  his  Hiram  life,  could  not  fail  deeply 
to  interest  educators  and  cultivated  men  generally, 
especially  such  as  belong  to  the  Hiram  fellowship. 
That  this  volume  will  measurably  draw  out  this  in- 
terest, is  the  hope  of  its  compiler  and  of  others  whom 
he  has  consulted  in  its  preparation. 

Some  remarks  upon  the  number  and  quality  of 
the  speeches  and  addresses  included,  will  be  found  in 
another  place ;  but  it  is  proper  to  say  here,  that  the 
personal  sketch  is  by  no  means  exhaustive.  An  in- 
teresting and  inspiring  volume  could  be  prepared  on 
his  Hiram  life.  Here  the  aim  is  to  make  a  Garfield 
book  in  the  sense  of  his  being  its  author,  and  not 
simply  its  subject.  At  the  same  time,  the  personal 
sketch  is  a  comprehensive  survey,  embracing  all  salient 
points  of  his  riiram  life  and  character,  filled  in  with 
sufficient  memorabilia  to  answer  the  purpose  of  illus- 
tration. What  is  more,  the  memorial  speeches  made 
at  Cleveland  supplement  the  sketch,  and  show  the 
impressions  made  by  Teacher  Garfield  upon  their 
authors,  who  are  simply  the  representatives  and  mouth- 
pieces of  thousands. 

This  book  has  been  prepared,  and  is  now  published, 


PKEFACE.  7 

in  the  confident  belief  that  no  more  appropriate  memo- 
rial to  the  lamented  dead  could  go  forth  from  Presi- 
dent Garfield's  old  home.  It  is  also  believed  that  none 
could  go  forth,  which,  were  he  living,  would  give  him 
so  much  pleasure. 

It  is  proper  to  add,  that  this  memorial  has  Mrs. 
Garfield's  cordial  approval.  The  pictures  of  the 
President  and  herself  she  has  chosen.  "Writing  at 
Mentor,  Oct.  28,  1881,  she  says,  "/  quite  approve  of 
your  plan  in  regard  to  the  memorial  volume.  It  would 
be  most  appropriate  that  the  speeches  to  which  you  refer 
should  appear  in  such  a  volume." 

B.   A.   HINSDAL1.. 
HIRAM  COLLEGE,  HIBAM,  O., 
Nov.  19,  1881. 


CONTENTS.. 


PART  I.  PAGE 

MEMORIALS  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFLELD  IN  HIRAM. 

I.    GENERAL  SKETCH 15 

I.    HIRAM  AND  HIRAM  SCHOOL  .     .        .        . .       .        .          15 

H.    GARFIELD  THE  HIRAM  STUDENT 24 

m.    THE  WILLIAMS  COLLEGE  INTERREGNUM   .  39 

IV.    GARFIELD  PRESIDENT  OP  HIRAM          .        .        .        .46 

.   V.    GARFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK 73 

VI.    GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE  .        .        .        .        .87 
II.    ADDRESSES  AT  HIRAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE       114 

I.      B.   A.   HlNSDALB 114 

n.  J.  H.  RHODES 124 

HI.  C.  B.  LOCKWOOD        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  133 

IV.  C.  D.  WILBUR 138 

V.  J.  W.  ROBBINS 145 

VI.  A.  H.  PETTIBONK 147 

VII.  H.  C.  WHITE 150 

VHI.  H.  N.  ELDRIDGB 157 

PART  H. 

PRESIDENT   GARFIELD'S   SPEECHES  AND  ADDRESSES 
ON  EDUCATION  AND  EDUCATORS. 

INTRODUCTION  TO  SPEECHES 161 

I.    THE  STATE  AND  EDUCATION *  162 

1.  The  National  Bureau  of  Education      .         .         .        162 

2.  The  Army  Post  Schools 169 

3.  The  "Hoar  Bill" 173 

4.  Education  and  the  South         .         .         .         .         .     1J3__ 
n.    THE  STATE  AND  SCIENCE 174 

HI.    STUDIES  AND  METHODS 176 

IV.    TRIBUTES  TO  EDUCATORS  ....        178 


10  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I.    THE  NATIONAL  BUREAU  OP  EDUCATION:  Speech  in 

the  House  of  Representatives,  June  8, 1866        .        .    181 
II.    NATIONAL  AID  TO  EDUCATION:   Speech  in  the  House 

of  Representatives,  Feb.  6,1872 215 

III.  SUFFRAGE  AND  SCHOOLS:  Extract  from  "  The  Future 

of  the  Republic:  its  Dangers  and  Hopes."  An  Ad- 
dress delivered  before  the  Literary  Societies  of  West- 
ern Reserve  College,  Hudson,  0.,  July  2, 1873  .  .  231 

IV.  POPULAR  EDUCATION:   Extracts  from  the  Letter  of 

Acceptance,  and  the  Inaugural  Address,  July  12, 

1880,  and  March  4, 1881 245 

V.  THE  GIST  OF  THE  "SOUTHERN  QUESTION:"  Reply 
made  at  Mentor,  to  a  Delegation  of  Colored  Citizens 
from  South  Carolina  and  other  Southern  States, 
Jan.  14, 1881 251 

VI.  RELATION  OF  THE  NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT  TO  SCI- 
ENCE: Speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Feb. 

11,1879 257 

VII.  COLLEGE  EDUCATION:  An  Address  before  the  Literary 
Societies  of  the  Eclectic  Institute,  Hiram,  0.,  June 

14,1867 275 

VIII.  ELEMENTS  OF  SUCCESS:  Address  before  the  Students 
of  the  Spencerian  Business  College,  Washington, 
D.C.,  June  29, 1869 .  .  315 

IX.  SOME  TENDENCIES  OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION:  Speech 
before  the  Department  of  Superintendence  of  the 
National  Education  Association,  Washington,  B.C., 

Feb.  5, 1879 335 

X.  S.  F.  B.  MORSE:  An  Address  at  the  Morse  Memorial 
Meeting,  held  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives, April  16,  1872 343 

XI.  JOSEPH  HENRY:  Address  at  the  Memorial  Meeting, 
held  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 

Tuesday  evening,  Jan.  16, 1879 353 

XII.  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  ALMEDA  A.  BOOTH:  An 
Address  delivered  at  Hiram  College,  0.,  June  22, 
1876 365 

APPENDIX 427 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTKATIOE"S. 


PAGE 

PORTRAIT  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD       .       .       .       Frontispiece 
FACSIMILE  LETTER  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD  .        .        .        .15 

VIEW  OF  HIRAM  COLLEGE 24 

PORTRAIT  OF  Miss  BOOTH    .       . 28 

FACSIMILE  LETTER  OF  Miss  BOOTH 30 

PORTRAIT  OF  MRS.  GARFIELD 86 

FACSIMILE  LETTER  OF  MRS.  GARFIELD         ....       90 


PAET  I. 

JHemorials  of  President  ffiarfieltr  in 
STUDENT,  TEACHER,  AND  CITIZEN, 


EXECUTIVE     MANSION 

W ASHI NGTON 


PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND 
EDUCATION. 


GENERAL   SKETCH. 

TAMES  ABRAM  GARFIELD  first  came  to 
*-*  Hiram  in  August,  1851.  An  account  of  what 
Hiram  then  was,  and  of  what  he  was,  will  be  a 
fitting  introduction  to  his  Hiram  life. 

I.  — HIRAM  AND  HIRAM  SCHOOL. 

In  1850  Hiram  was  a  township  of  Western 
Reserve  farmers;  surface  twenty-five  square  miles, 
population  eleven  hundred  and  six.  The  "Cen- 
tre "  was  a  cross-roads,  with  a  post-office,  one  or 
two  shops,  two  white  churches,  and  three  or  four 
dwelling-houses.  It  was  remote  from  any  main 
thoroughfare  or  centre  of  population.  No  stage- 
coach wheels  rolled  within  five  miles  of  the 
place.  Probably  twenty  farmhouses  lay  within 

15 


16      PRESIDENT  GAKFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

a  radius  of  a  mile.  And  this  was  all.  Here, 
on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  great  "  divide,"  and 
a  mile  from  its  crest,  the  Disciples  of  Christ,  in 
the  summer  of  1850,  planted  the  Western  Reserve 
Eclectic  Institute,  the  child  of  much  consultation, 
prayer,  and  hope.  The  reasons  that  led  to  this 
location  may  properly  be  set  down  in  this  place. 

In  that  day  the  Disciples  of  the  Western  Re- 
serve were  mostly  rural  people,  sharing  the  old- 
fashioned  prejudices  against  towns  and  cities. 
Thought,  in  Northern  Ohio,  was  narrowly  pro- 
vincial in  1850.  There  were  only  two  or  three 
railroads  in  the  State.  No  one  dreamed  of  our 
present  railroad  system,  or  foresaw  the  centraliza- 
tion of  wealth  and  population  that  the  steam- 
locomotive  has  wrought.  Travelling  was  done  in 
wheeled  vehicles  or  on  horseback.  People  owned 
their  own  conveyances  and  horses.  So  the  fath- 
ers asked,  "  Why  can  they  not  turn  their  horses' 
heads  towards  Hiram  as  well  as  towards  any 
other  place?"  Hiram,  then,  offered  the  desired 
seclusion.  Hiram  had  a  vigorous  church,  that 
would  furnish  the  desired  religious  environment. 
Hiram,  too,  offered  a  contingent  subscription  of 
four  thousand  dollars,  —  no  mean  inducement  to 
the  trustees  of  a  school  that  was  not  expected, 


HIRAM   AND   HIE  AM  SCHOOL.  17 

at  its  founding,  to  cost  more  than  twice  or  thrice 
that  sum.  The  aims  of  the  school  were  both 
general  and  special.  More  narrowly  they  were 
these : — 

1.  To  provide  a  sound   scientific   and  literary 
education. 

2.  To  temper  and  sweeten  such  education  with 
moral  and  scriptural  knowledge. 

3.  To  educate  young  men  for  the  ministry. 
One  peculiar  tenet  of  the*  religious  movement 

in  which  it  originated  was  impressed  upon  the 
Eclectic  Institute  at  its  organization.  The  Dis- 
ciples believed  that  the  Bible  had  been  in  a  degree 
obscured  by  theological  speculations  and  ecclesi- 
astical systems.  Hence  their  religious  movement 
was  a  revolt  from  the  theology  of  the  schools,  and 
an  overture  to  men  to  come  face  to  face  with  the 
Scriptures.  They  believed,  also,  that  to  the  Holy 
Writings  belonged  a  larger  place  in  general  edu- 
cation than  had  yet  been  accorded  to  them.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  all  their  educational  institutions 
they  have  emphasized  the  Bible  and  its  related 
branches  of  knowledge.  This  may  be  called  the 
distinctive  feature  of  their  schools.  The  charter 
of  the  Eclectic  Institute,  therefore,  declared  the 
purpose  of  the  institution  to  be  "the  instruction 


18       PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

of  youth  of  both  sexes  in  the  various  branches  of 
literature  and  science,  especially  of  moral  science 
as  based  on  the  facts  and  precepts  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures." 

It  took  time  for  Hiram  to  become  what  it  is 
to-day,  —  a  bright  Ohio  village ;.  white  houses, 
green  blinds,  maples  and  elms,  a  handsome  college 
building,  and  a  beautiful  campus.  Soon  the  new 
school  drew  to  itself  three  hundred  scholars ;  and, 
although  that  number  was  not  long  maintained, 
Hiram  has  furnished  tuition  for  more  than  five 
thousand  individual  pupils.  At  the  re-union  of 
1880  General  Garfield  said,  "  To  my  mind,  the  his- 
tory of  Hiram  College,  and  the  institution  on  which 
it  was  built,  divides  itself  into  two  chapters.  The 
first,  both  in  time  and  perhaps  in  importance,  should 
be  headed, '  What  other  people  did  for  it ; '  and  the 
second,  '  What  Hiram  did  for  itself.' "  On  that 
occasion  he  condensed  much  Hiram  history  —  as 
well  as  much  of  his  own  history  —  into  this  short 
speech :  —  . 

"  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN,  —  I  said  there  were  two 
chapters  in  the  history  of  this  Institution.  You  have  heard 
one  relative  to  the  founders.1  They  were  pioneers  in  this 
Western  Reserve.  They  were  all  men  of  energy,  great  force 

1  Referring  to  an  historical  address  just  delivered. 


HIBAM  AND   HIRAM  SCHOOL.  19 

of  character,  and  nearly  all  of  them  men  of  small  means; 
but  they  planted  this  institution.  In  1850  the  campus  was 
a  cornfield  with  a  solid,  plain  brick  building  in  the  centre 
of  it ;  and  almost  all  the  rest  has  been  done  by  the  insti- 
tution itself.  This  is  the  second  chapter.  It  was  without 
a  dollar  of  endowment,  without  a  powerful  friend  any- 
%vli(-ro,  but  with  a  corps  of  teachers  who  were  told  to  go 
on  the  ground,  and  see  what  they  could  make  out  of  it, 
and  to  take  their  pay  out  of  the  tuitions  that  should  be 
received ;  who  invited  students  of  their  own  spirit  to  come 
here,  and  find  out  by  trial  what  they  could  make  out  of 
it;  and  the  response  has  been  their  chapter  of  work,  and 
the  chief  part  of  the  response  I  see  in  the  faces  gathered 
before  me  to-day.  It  was  a  simple  question  of  sinking  or 
swimming.  I  know  that  we  are  all  inclined  to  be  a  little 
clannish ;  perhaps  we  have  a  right  to  be :  but  I  do  not 
know  of  any  place,  I  do  not  know  of  any  institution,  that 
has  accomplished  more,  with  so  little  means,  than  this 
school  on  Hiram  Hill. 

"  I  know  of  no  place  where  the  doctrine  of  self-help  has 
had  a  fuller  development,  by  necessity  as  well  as  by  favor, 
than  here  on  this  hill.  The  doctrine  of  the  survival  of 
the  fittest  found  its  place  amongst  these  men  and  women 
gathered  here.  As  I  said  about  them  a  great  many  years 
ago,  the  theory  of  Hiram  was  to  throw  its  young  men  and 
women  overboard,  and  let  them  try  it  for  themselves ;  and 
all  that  were  fit  to  get  ashore  got  there,  and  I  think  we 
had  few  cases  of  drowning.  Xow,  when  I  look  over  these 
faces,  and  mark  the  several  geological  ages  so  well  repre- 
sented by  Air.  Atwater  in  his  address,  I  note  one  curious 


20       PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

fact  where  the  geological  analogy  does  not  hdld :  I  find  no 
fossils,  —  no  fossils  at  all.  Some  are  dead,  and  glorious  in 
our  memories ;  but  those  who  are  alive  are  ALIVE,  I  think 
all.  The  teachers  and  the  students  of  this  school  built  it 
up  in  every  sense,  —  made  the  cornfield  into  that  handsome 
campus.  These  evergreens  you  see  across  the  road,  they 
planted.  I  well  remember  the  day  that  they  turned  out 
and  went  into  the  woods  to  find  beautiful  maples,  and 
brought  them  in ;  when  they  purchased  these  evergreens ; 
when  each  young  man  for  himself,  and  perhaps  a  second 
for  some  young  lady  that  he  loved,  planted  one  or  two 
trees  on  the  campus,  and  named  them  after  himself.  There 
are  many  here  with  moist  eyes  to-day  who  can  point  out 
the  tree  that  Bowler  planted.  Bowler  was  shot  through 
the  heart  at  Cedar  Mountain.  Many  of  you  who  point  out 
trees,  big  trees  now,  called  after  you  many  years  ago.  I 
believe,  outside  of  the  physical  features  of  the  place,  that 
there  was  a  stronger  pressure  of  work  to  the  square  inch  in 
the  boilers  that  ran  this  establishment,  than  any  other  I 
x  know  of.  Young  men  and  women,  rough,  crude,  untutored 
farmer-boys  and  farmer-girls,  came  here  to  try  themselves, 
and  find  what  manner  of  people  they  were.  They  came 
here  to  go  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  to  discover  themselves. 
In  many  cases  I  hope  the  discovery  was  fortunate  in  all 
that  was  worthy  of  trying;  and  the  friendships  that  were 
formed  out  of  that  struggle  have  followed  this  group  of  peo- 
ple longer  and  farther  than  almost  any  I  have  ever  known 
in  my  life.  They  are  scattered  all  over  the  United  States, 
in  every  field  of  activity ;  and  if  I  should  try  to  name  them 
the  sun  would  go  down  before  I  had  finished." 


HIRAM   AND  HIRAM  SCHOOL.  21 

Truth,  if  not  modesty,  would  have  allowed  him 
to  add  with  Father  .JSneas,  "  All  of  which  I  saw, 
and  a  great  part  of  which  I  was." 

When  Garfield  came  to  Hiram,  every  thing  was 
new  and  crude.  As  he  says  in  his  address  on 
"  The  Life  and  Character  of  Almeda  A.  Booth," 
"The  Eclectic  was  compelled  to  create  its  own 
scholarship  and  culture.  Very  few  of  its  early 
students  had  gone  beyond  the  ordinary  studies 
of  the  district  school ;  and  a  large  majority  of 
them  needed  thorough  discipline  in  the  common 
English  branches."  Hiram  gave  the  Institute  a 
seat;  the  trustees  gave  a  building  and  the  first 
teachers;  the  regions  farther  and  nearer,  schol- 
ars; and  then  the  spiritual  Hiram  developed  it- 
self. Society,  traditions,  and  the  peculiar  genius 
of  the  place  were  evolved  from  the  teachers  and 
pupils,  limited  by  the  local  and  general  environ- 
ment. 

The  opening  of  this  new  school  was  coincident 
with  three  things  important  in  this  history :  — 

1.  Coincident  with  a  general  educational  awak- 
ening in  the  State  of  Ohio.  In  an  important 
sense,  the  present  school-system  of  the  State  dates 
from  the  year  1853.1  Population  had  increased 

1  The  date  of  the  "  Rice  School  Law." 


22       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

in  the  State  marvellously ;  the  homes  of  the  peo- 
ple were  full  of  youth ;  and  wealth  had  so  grown, 
that  men,  in  great  part  freed  from  the  burden  of 
sweeping  away  the  forests,  were  enabled  to  pay 
greatly  increased  attention  to  the  education  of 
their  children. 

2.  Coincident  with  an  important  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  Disciples  of  the    Reserve.      They 
were  numerous  and  active  :  they  now  had  a  school 
of  their  own,  in  which  they  took  the  pride  and 
interest  that  parents  take  in  a  first  child. 

3.  Coincident    with    the    young    manhood    of 
James  A.  Garfield.      His  family  belonged  to  the 
Disciples'  Church:    so  did  the  families  of  many 
neighbors.     He  himself  had  become  a  member  a 
year  and   a  half  before.      No   better  school  was 
within  his  reach  in  1851 ;  but  it  must  be  said, 
that,  for  the  most  part,  religious  influences  brought 
him  to  this  place.     Here,  too,  may  be  dropped  a 
thought  that  cannot  be  fully  developed. 

No  other  church  in  the  land  could  have  given 
him  the  opportunity  that  the  Disciples  offered. 
This  is  true  in  a  double  sense.  While  there  was 
an  absence  of  license  on  the  one  hand,  there  was 
large  freedom  on  the  other.  This  gave  him  an 
opportunity  to  exercise  his  gifts,  intellectual  and 


HIKAM  AND   HIRAM  SCHOOL.  23 

religious,  such  as  an  older  and  more  conservative 
body  could  not  have  given,  which  he  improved 
much  to  the  profit  of  his  brethren  and  to  his  own 
advantage.  But  more,  the  Disciple  habit  of  mind, 
especially  the  denominational  method  of  handling 
the  Scriptures,  —  which  may  be  briefly  defined  as 
a  brushing-aside  of  the  Church  creeds,  as  well  as 
much  of  the  traditionary  theology,  and  a  direct 
face-to-face  study  of  the  Bible,  — was  an  important 
element  in  his  history.  Stress  may  also  be  laid 
upon  the  accepted  canons  of  interpretation,  both 
few  and  simple,  as  well  as  "  dividing  the  word  of 
truth  "  by  the  application  of  the  principle  of  rela- 
tivity ;  as,  for  instance,  taking  into  account  the 
period  of  divine  revelation  immediately  in  hand, 
whether  the  Patriarchal,  the  Mosaic,  or  the  Chris- 
tian. No  one  who  is  thoroughly  familiar  with 
President  Garfield's  history  can  doubt  that  this 
Disciple  habit  and  method  had  a  most  important 
influence  upon  his  mind,  his  whole  life  and  char- 
acter. At  the  same  time,  he  was  the  farthest 
removed  from  a  sectarian  or  denominationalist. 
His  religious  thought  was  ever  broad,  his  spirit 
ever  catholic. 


24      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 


II.  — GARFIELD  THE  HIRAM  STUDENT. 
To  this  young  school,  young  Garfield  came  the 
third  term  of  its  existence.  In  three  months  more 
he  would  be  twenty  years  of  age.  An  obvious  and 
interesting  analogy  between  the  school  and  the 
pupil  could  be  readily  traced  out.  Both  were  in 
the  formative  period;  both  were  full  of  strength 
and  enthusiasm;  but  both  needed  growth  and 
ripeness.  He  was  strong-framed,  deep-chested,  six 
feet  high,  with  a  blue  eye,  and  a  massive  head  sur- 
mounted by  a  shock  of  tow-colored  hair.  Physi- 
cally he  was  the  Garfield  of  twenty  years  later, 
only  he  had  the  pulpy  adolescence  of  twenty. 
Time  had  not  yet  rounded  out  his  figure,  browned 
and  thinned  his  hair,  and  put  into  his  face  the  lines 
of  thought.  The  school  was  growing,  and  he  was 
growing.  His  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  had 
already  declared  themselves.  Having  lost  his  fa- 
ther in  his  infancy,  and  having  been  thrown  upon 
his  own  resources  at  an  early  age,  in  the  midst  of 
the  pioneers  of  Ohio,  his  sense  of  responsibility, 
his  judgment,  and  his  self-helpfulness  were  devel- 
oped much  beyond  the  average.  He  was  full  of 
animal  spirits  and  young  joviality ;  but  he  had  had 
his  ear  upon  the  human  heart,  and  had  heard  its  re- 


HIRAM   COLLEGE. 


GAEFIELD   THE   HIRAM   STUDENT.  25 

verberatory  murmur  in  the  minor  key.  Two  years 
or  more  before,  he  had  finished  the  studies  of  the 
Orange  district  school.  At  Chester,  O.,  where  he 
had  attended  Geauga  Seminary  four  terms  in  1849 
and  1850,  he  had  studied  natural  philosophy, 
algebra,  and  botany,  and  begun  Latin  and  Greek. 
He  had  taught  district-school  two  terms,  and 
received  a  full  measure  of  the  benefit  which  comes 
from  that  valuable  discipline.  He  had  already 
put  his  early  longings  for  the  lake  and  the  sea 
behind  him,  and  had  determined  to  have  the  best 
education  that  he  could  obtain.  His  coming  to 
Hiram  was  the  next  step  towards  carrying  out 
this  resolution.  His  address  on  Miss  Booth  con- 
tains some  interesting  description  and  autobiog- 
raphy. This  extract  lets  in  a  strong  side-light 
upon  his  mind  in  1851 :  — 

"A  few  days  after  the  beginning  of  the  term,  I  saw  a 
class  of  three  reciting  in  mathematics,  —  geometry,  I  think. 
They  sat  on  one  of  the  red  benches,  in  the  centre  aisle  of 
the  lower  chapel.  I  had  never  seen  a  geometry ;  and,  regard- 
ing both  teacher  and  class  with  a  feeling  of  reverential  awe 
for  the  intellectual  heights  to  which  they  had  climbed,  I 
studied  their  faces  so  closely  that  I  seem  to  see  them  now  as 
distinctly  as  I  saw  them  then." 

All  scholars  who  had  few  books  and  other  edu- 


26       PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

cational  advantages  in  youth  can  take  in  this 
picture  at  once,  —  teacher,  class,  and  the  honest, 
open-eyed  youth  of  twenty  years,  full  of  wonder, 
appreciation,  and  reverence. 

Having  looked  at  Garfield's  new  surroundings, 
and  equipped  him,  let  us  now  see  him  at  his 
work. 

First,  he  came  to  Hiram  poor  in  every  thing 
but  faculties  and  character.  He  was  wholly  de- 
pendent upon  his  own  resources.  He  sought  and 
obtained  the  position  of  janitor,  —  a  position  re- 
served hi  those  days  for  poor  students  who  wanted 

'a  chance  to  help  themselves.  Two  terms  he  made 
fires,  swept  the  floors,  and  rang  the  bell.  Scores 
of  men  and  women  can  now  be  found  who  well 
remember  seeing  the  future  President  of  the 

^ United  States  at  the  end  of  the  Hiram  bell-rope. 
One  who  has  added  her  rill  to  this  stream  of 
reminiscence,  and  whose  memory  goes  back  to 
the  bell-ringing  days,  says,  "  His  large  head  and 
massive  frame  had  a  suggestion  of  the  overgrown ; 
but  he  escaped  awkwardness  by  the  thought  and 
purpose  that  controlled  his  actions.  His  clothes 
had  a  poor-student  look.  At  the  close  of  the 
morning  lecture,  before  the  students  left  the  room, 
he  would  leave  the  chapel,  and  ring  the  bell.  His 


GAEFIELD  THE  HIRAM  STUDENT.  27 

tread  was  firm  and  free,  and  the  same  unconscious 
dignity  followed  him  then  that  attended  him  when 
he  ascended  the  eastern  portico  of  the  Capitol  to 
deliver  his  Inaugural  Address.  He  was  modest 
and  self-possessed,  without  vanity  or  self-con- 
sciousness, and  then  and  always  absolutely  free 
from  any  affectation  whatever."  A  house  is  still " 
pointed  out  in  Hiram,  the  clapboards  of  which  he 
planed  in  one  of  his  vacations.  But  bell-ropes 
and  jack-planes  do  not  make  men  great :  if  they 
did,  the  road  to  greatness  would  be  easy  enough. 
So  we  pass  on  to  things  more  important. 

On  his  arrival  at  Hiram  in  August,  1851,  Mr. 
Garfield  took  up  his  studies  where  he  had  dropped 
them  at  Chester.  After  one  term's  work  as  stu- 
dent and  janitor,  he  retired  for  a  term  to  teach 
his  last  district-school.  In  the  spring  of  1852  he 
returned,  and  continued  in  Hiram  until  he  went  to 
Williamstown  in  1854.  Principal  Hayden  and 
teachers  Dunshee,  Munnell,  and  Hull  were  his 
instructors.  To  Dunshee  he  probably  recited  more 
than  to  all  the  rest  put  together.  Garfield  always 
appreciated  and  respected  his  Hiram  teachers ;  but 
it  is  perfectly  just  to  them  to  say  that  Miss  Booth, 
wiio  never  was  a  teacher  of  his,  but  rather  a  fellow- 
student,  did  much  more  than  they  did  to  mould  his 


28      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

character  and  give  direction  to  his  life.  That  he 
so  felt,  any  one  can  see  by  reading  between  the 
lines  his  noble  tribute  to  her  character  and  work. 
Not  only  so,  but  he  says  in  words,  — 

"  On  my  own  behalf,  I  take  this  occasion  to  say,  that  for 
her  generous  and  powerful  aid,  so  often  and  so  efficiently 
rendered,  for  her  quick  and  never-failing  sympathy,  and  for 
her  intelligent,  unselfish,  and  unswerving  friendship,  I  owe 
her  a  debt  of  gratitude  and  affection,  for  the  payment  of 
which  the  longest  term  of  life  would  have  been  too  short." 

But  it  may  be  said,  "  This  was  in  the  presence 
of  the  Hiram  fellowship."  Let  it  be  said,  then, 
that  before  the  Williams  College  fellowship  he 
bore  a  similar  testimony.  At  the  Williams  ban- 
quet, held  in  Cleveland,  Jan.  10, 1881,  after  recog- 
nizing his  obligation  to  the  common  schools  of 
Ohio  and  to  Williams  College,  he  said,  — 

"  I  am  glad  to  say,  reverently,  in  the  presence  of  the  many 
ladies  nere  to-night,  that  I  owe  to  a  woman  who  has  long 
since  been  asleep,  perhaps  a  higher  debt  intellectually  than 
I  owe  to  any  one  else.  After  that  comes  my  debt  to  Wil- 
liams College." 

He  called  no  name,  but  it  was  Almeda  Booth. 
Probably  the  best  account  of  Garfield's  Hiram 


GAEFIELD   THE   HIRAM   STUDENT.  29 

studies  that  can  be  given  without  access  to  his 
diary  is  his  account  of  Miss  Booth's  studies.  Let 
the  reader  substitute  his  name  for  hers,  in  the 
following  paragraphs :  — 

"  I  remember  that  she  and  I  were  members  of  the  class 
that  began  Xenophon's  '  Anabasis,'  in  the  fall  term  of  1852. 
Near  the  close  of  that  term  I  also  began  to  teach  in  the 
Eclectic,  and  thereafter,  like  her,  could  keep  up  my  studies 
only  outside  of  my  own  class  hours.  In  mathematics  and 
the  physical  sciences,  I  was  far  behind  her ;  but  we  were 
nearly  at  the  same  place  in  Greek  and  Latin,  each  having 
studied  them  about  three  terms.  She  had  made  her  home  at 
President  Hayden's,  almost  from  the  first ;  and  I  became  a 
member  of  his  family  at  the  beginning  of  the  winter  term  of 
1852-53.  Thereafter,  for  nearly  two  years,  she  and  I  studied 
together,  and  recited  in  the  same  classes  (frequently  with- 
out other  associates),  till  we  had  nearly  completed  the  classi- 
cal course. 

"  From  a  diary  which  I  then  kept,  and  in  which  my  own 
studies  are  recorded,  I  am  able  to  state,  quite  accurately, 
what  she  accomplished  in  the  classics,  from  term  to  term,  in 
the  two  following  years.  During  the  whiter  and  spring  terms 
of  1853,  she  read  Xenophon's  '  Memorabilia '  entire,  reciting  to 
Professor  Dunshee.  In  the  summer  vacation  of  1853,  twelve 
of  the  more  advanced  students  engaged  Professor  Dunshee 
as  a  tutor  for  one  month.  John  Harnit,  H.  W.  Everest, 
Philip  Burns,  C.  C.  Foote,  Miss  Booth,  and  I  were  of  the 
number.  A  literary  society  was  formed,  in  which  all  took 
part.  During  those  four  weeks,  besides  taking  an  active 


30       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD  AND   EDUCATION. 

part  in  the  literary  exercises  of  the  society,  Miss  Booth  read 
thoroughly,  and  for  the  first  time,  the  Pastorals  of  Virgil,  — 
that  is,  the  '  Georgics '  and  '  Bucolics '  entire,  and  the  first  six 
books  of  Homer's  '  Iliad,'  accompanied  by  a  thorough  drill  in 
the  Latin  or  Greek  grammar  at  each  recitation.  I  am  sure 
that  none  of  those  who  recited  with  her  would  say  she  was 
behind  the  foremost  in  the  thoroughness  of  her  work  or  the 
elegance  of  her  translations. 

"During  the  fall  term  of  1853,  she  read  one  hundred  pages 
of  Herodotus,  and  about  the  same  amount  of  Livy.  During 
that  term  also,  Professors  Dunshee  and  Hull,  Miss  Booth 
and  I,  met  at  her  room  two  evenings  of  each  week,  to  make 
a  joint  translation  of  the  book  of  Romans.  Professor  Dun- 
shee contributed  his  studies  of  the  German  commentators, 
De  Wette  and  Tholuck ;  and  each  of  the  translators  made 
some  special  study  for  each  meeting.  How  nearly  we  com- 
pleted the  translation,  I  do  not  remember ;  but  I  do  remem- 
ber that  the  contributions  and  criticisms  of  Miss  Booth  were 
remarkable  for  suggestiveness  and  sound  judgment.  Our 
work  was  more  thorough  than  rapid ;  for  I  find  this  entry  in 
my  diary  for  Dec.  15,  1853 :  '  Translation  Society  sat  three 
hours  at  Miss  Booth's  room,  and  agreed  upon  the  translation 
of  nine  verses.' 

"  During  the  winter  term  of  1853-54,  she  continued  to 
read  Livy,  and  also  read  the  whole  of  Demosthenes  '  On  the 
Crown.'  The  members  of  the  class  in  Demosthenes  were 
Miss  Booth,  A.  Hull,  C.  C.  Foote,  and  myself. 

"  During  the  spring  term  of  1854,  she  read  the  '  Germa- 
nia '  and  '  Agricola '  of  Tacitus,  and  a  portion  of  Hesiod." 


GARFIELD  THE  HEBAM  STUDENT.  31 

Garfield  was  in  Hiram  only  eight  terms,  aver- 
aging thirteen  weeks  in  length,  before  he  went 
to  college.  Six  of  these  terms,  as  will  soon  be 
more  fully  stated,  he  taught  in  the  Institute  sev- 
eral hours  each  day.  In  those  eight  terms  he 
carried  his  studies  to  the  junior  year  of  the 
Williams  College  course.  This  included  nearly 
all  the  Greek  and  Latin  included  in  the  terms 
of  admission,  as  well  as  the  studies  of  the 
Freshman  and  Sophomore  years.  Those  who  are 
curious  to  see  the  amount  of  study  that  this 
included  are  referred  to  the  terms  of  admission 
to  Williams  in  1854-55,  and  the  full  course  of 
instruction,  which  will  be  found  in  the  catalogue. 
The  simple  facts  tell  their  own  story,  and  no 
commentary  is  needed. 

President  H.  W.  Everest,  of  Butler  University, 
Indiana,  who  was  a  student  with  Garfield  in 
Chester,  as  well  as  a  student  and  teacher  with 
•him  in  Hiram,  thus  speaks  in  a  late  private  com- 
munication :  — 

"  I  met  him  first  at  Chester.  Rooming  in  the  same 
building,  and  working  for  a  while  at  the  same  carpenter's 
bench,  we  soon  became  intimate.  He  was  a  noticeable  stu- 
dent, both  on  the  play-ground  and  in  the  class-room.  We 
recited  Robinson's  algebra  together,  and  belonged  to  a  liter- 


32      PKESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

ary  society  of  our  own  getting-up,  called  the  'Mystic  Ten.' 
At  Hiram  I  was  not  classed  with  him,  yet  knew  much  of 
him  as  a  student,  but  more  of  him  as  a  teacher.  My  esti- 
mate is  briefly  as  follows;  and  for  many  of  the  items  I 
remember  distinct  illustrations:  — 

"1.  His  intellections  were  clear,  vigorous,  and  easy  in 
all  directions,  but  especially  so  in  the  languages. 

"  2.  He  did  not  study  merely  to  recite  well,  but  to  know, 
and  for  the  pleasure  of  learning  and  knowing. 

"  3.  It  was  his  main  object  to  master  the  thought,  but  the 
language  was  retained  with  the  thought. 

"4.  As  study  was  the  easy  play  of  his  mind,  so  to  recount 
and  to  review  his  lessons  and  reading  was  a  frequent  pleas- 
ure. 

"  5.  He  was  a  master  at  condensed  classifications,  so  that 
his  memory  easily  held  and  reproduced  what  he  had  learned. 

"  6.  He  had  a  wide-awake  curiosity,  which  seemed  never 
to  be  satiated.  A  new  thing,  however  unimportant,  always 
attracted  his  attention. 

"  7.  He  had  a  great  desire  and  settled  purpose  to  conquer, 
to  master  the  lesson,  to  prove  superior  to  every  difficulty, 
to  excel  all  competitors,  to  conquer  and  surpass  himself. 

"8.  With  this  desire  to  conquer,  there  was  found  the 
most  generous  and  exultant  admiration  at  the  success  of 
another. 

"9.  Over  all  his  study  he  shed  the  glory  of  a  happy 
disposition,  —  of  youth,  hope,  and  manly  courage." 

All  of  these  points  are  well  taken,  but  several 
of  them  deserve  especial  emphasis.  He  studied 


GAEFIELD  THE   HIE  AM  STUDENT.  33 

to  know,  and  for  the  pleasure  of  learning  and 
knowing.  With  this  may  be  connected  President 
Everest's  seventh  point,  Garfield's  settled  purpose 
to  conquer,  to  prove  superior  to  every  difficulty. 
His  love  of  victory,  over  men  or  things,  was  the 
strongest ;  but  it  was  a  love  born  of  the  noblest 
elements.  He  took  no  pleasure  in  a  merely  per- 
sonal triumph ;  but  a  triumph  that  was  a  test  of 
honorable  superiority,  he  keenly  enjoyed.  Here, 
too,  may  be  mentioned  his  full  appreciation  and 
generous  recognition  of  all  men,  even  though  com- 
petitors or  opponents.  His  determination  to  mas- 
ter whatever  he  undertook,  especially  to  subdue 
his  own  nature,  is  well  illustrated  by  an  anecdote. 
Sitting  on  a  log  in  the  edge  of  the  woods,  back 
of  the  college  building  in  Hiram,  he  once  said  to 
the  companion  of  his  walk,  — 

"  I  have  made  a  painful  discovery.  I  have  found  that  my 
mind  needs  interest  in  a  subject  to  incite  it  to  continuous 
action.  The  other  day  I  tried  to  read  through  a  long  bill  in 
which  I  had  no  interest :  it  was  merely  my  duty  to  read  it. 
My  attention  wandered,  thus  revealing  a  defect  in  my  train- 
ing. If  I  cannot  otherwise  overcome  this  defect,"  he  said, 
"  I  will  give  up  my  work,  renounce  public  life,  go  to  Germany, 
and  take  a  full  course  in  one  of  the  universities.  I  must  be 
full  master  of  my  powers  at  any  cost." 


34   PKESIDENT  GAEFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

At  this  time  lie  had  been  in  Congress  several 
years. 

His  mastery  of  condensed  classification  not 
only  aided  retention  and  reproduction,  and  thus 
greatly  facilitated  the  process  of  thorough  acqui- 
sition, but  was  of  incalculable  value  to  him  as 
a  teacher  and  a  public  speaker.  All  members  of 
his  classes  who  appreciated  him,  and  even  those 
students  who  simply  heard  his  lectures,  cannot 
fail  to  remember  the  advantage  that  they  received 
from  his  blackboard  classifications.  They  were  a 
capital  feature  of  all  his  teaching.  Probably,  too, 
some  will  remember  the  effective  use  that  he  made 
of  the  blackboard  at  Chagrin  Falls  (in  the  debate 
soon  to  be  mentioned),  in  showing  up  Mr.  Den- 
ton's  "  law  of  the  planetary  distances."  Besides, 
in  his  oratory  classification  is  an  element  equally 
important  with  strength  of  statement  and  aptness 
of  illustration.  His  curiosity  could  never  be 
satisfied.  No  matter  what  he  touched,  he  must 
understand  it.  When  he  went  as  commissioner  to 
the  Flat-Heads,  he  studied  up  all  the  Flat-Head 
literature  that  he  could  find.  He  got  hold  of 
Lewis  and  Clarke's  report  of  their  expedition  to 
Oregon :  he  carried  it  with  him,  and  read  it  with 
the  utmost  avidity  as  he  rolled  over  the  hills 


GABFIELD  THE  HIEAM  STUDENT.  35 

of  Montana  in  the  stage-coach.  No  doubt,  too, 
Captain  Douglass  Ottinger,  the  other  officers,  and 
the  crew  of  the  cutter  "  Commodore  Perry,"  will 
remember  the  eager  interest  that  he  took  in 
every  thing  pertaining  to  their  ship  and  service, 
when  he  made  a  trip  with  them  down  Lake  Erie 
in  1878,  to  inspect  the  Life-Saving  Service.  The 
glow  of  his  happy  social  disposition,  his  joyous 
nature,  his  faith,  hope,  and  courage,  and  even  his 
tendency  to  optimism,  was  an  indispensable  condi- 
tion of  his  success  as  a  student,  as  a  teacher,  and 
as  a  public  man. 

Finally,  President  Everest  says  Garfield  did  not 
study  merely  to  recite  well,  but  to  know,  and  for 
the  pleasure  of  learning  and  knowing.  But  Gar- 
field  did  study  to  recite  well,  all  the  same.  He 
was  never  indifferent  to  a  recitation,  or  to  any 
other  appearance  of  his  before  a  class  or  an  audi- 
ence. Consciousness  that  he  had  made  a  good 
recitation  never  failed  to  give  him  much  satisfac- 
tion. Still,  he  perfectly  appreciated  that  knowl- 
edge and  training  are  the  ends  of  study :  nay, 
he  recognized  no  antagonism  between  good  recit- 
ing, in  the  proper  sense,  and  thorough  knowledge. 
The  one  is  an  end  in  itself,  and  is  the  necessary 
condition  of  the  other."  He  once  said,  "  If  at  any 


36      PRESIDENT   GARFEELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

time  I  began  to  flag  in  my  effort  to  master  a  sub- 
ject, as  working  out  a  problem,  I  was  stimulated 
to  further  effort  by  the  thought,  'Some  other 
fellow  in  the  class  will  probably  master  it.'  "  In 
summing  up  the  forces  that  acted  in  President 
Garfield's  life,  what  he  thought  "the  other  fellow  " 
was  likely  to  do  must  never  be  overlooked.  He 
was  always  generous  in  his  emulations,  but  his 
eye  never  wandered  from  the  "  other  fellow."  At 
the  same  time,  full  recognition  of  noble  achieve- 
ment for  its  own  sake,  and  faithfulness  to  the 
heavenly  vision  as  revealed  in  his  own  heart,  ran 
parallel  with  the  spirit  of  emulation. 

Although  Mr.  Garfield  had  made  but  slight 
progress  in  mathematics  and  classics  when  he 
came  to  Hiram,  before  the  end  of  the  first  year 
he  ranked  well  up  with  the  best  scholars.  His 
masterful  mind  immediately  asserted  itself.  All 
soon  acknowledged  that  he  was  the  peer  of  any : 
many  held  him  superior  to  all  his  compeers. 
His  mind  was  now  reaching  out  in  all  directions. 
He  was  a  vast  elemental  force,  and  nothing  was 
so  essential  to  him  as  room  and  opportunity. 
Hiram  was  now  forming  her  future  teachers,  as 
well  as  creating  her  own  culture.  Naturally, 
therefore,  he  was  given  a  place  in  the  corps  of 


GARFIELD  THE  HIRAM  STUDENT.  37 

teachers.  So  in  the  catalogue  of  1853-54  his  name 
appears  twice,  —  "  James  A.  Garfield,  Cuyahoga 
County,"  pupil;  and  "J.  A.  Garfield,  Teacher 
in  the  English  Department,  and  of  the  Ancient 
Languages."  His  early  engagement  as  a  teacher 
may  point  to  a  certain  rawness  in  the  school. 
However  that  may  be,  the  pupils  lost  nothing,  but 
gained  much.  That  the  engagement  was  of  great 
value  to  him,  all  will  admit  who  hold  with  the 
ancients,  and  with  the  founders  of  the  European 
universities,  that  teaching  is  essential  to  the  prog- 
ress and  perfection  of  the  scholar.  In  this  respect 
Hiram  gave  him  an  advantage  that  an  older 
school,  with  a  higher  standard  and  more  conven- 
tionality, could  not  have  given.  The  two  years 
following  he  taught  arithmetic,  grammar,  alge- 
bra, penmanship,  geometry,  and  classes  in  classics. 
He  handled  large  classes  in  the  English  studies 
with  conspicuous  power.  He  took  captive  the 
members  of  his  classes.  He  won  the  students  as 
a  body.  His  pupils  and  fellow-students  had  a 
great  deal  to  say  about  him,  as  well  as  much  to 
write  in  their  letters ;  and  the  result  was,  that  he 
made  a  deep  impression,  both  directly  and  indi- 
rectly, upon  the  patrons  of  the  school  generally. 
The  managers  of  the  Institute  saw  that  his  further 

394707 


38       PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

services  would  be  most  desirable  when  he  had 
finished  his  own  studies.  He  and  Miss  Booth  left 
for  college  at  the  same  time.  As  they  took  their 
leave,  —  he  to  return  in  two  years,  and  she  in  one, 
—  the  Board  adopted  this  resolution  :  — 

"In  view  of  the  faithfulness  and  service  to  the  institu- 
tion of  James  A.  Garfield  and  Almeda  A.  Booth,  we  recom- 
mend to  appropriate  to  each  fifty  dollars  in  addition  to  their 


In  that  day  of  small  things,  fifty  dollars  was  a 
large  sum  to  the  Hiram  Board,  and  to  these  faith- 
ful teachers  as  well. 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  1853-54  that  Garfield 
preached  his  first  sermon  in  Hiram,  and  made  his 
first  chapel  lecture.  One  who  was  so  fortunate  as 
to  hear  both,  says  the  sermon  was  a  parallel 
between  the  history  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  and 
Jesus  Christ.  The  lecture  was  upon  the  origin  of 
the  English  language,  a  topic  then  beginning  to 
attract  much  attention  in  academical  and  col- 
legiate schools.  He  came  to  the  stand  with  a 
book  in  his  hand,  afterwards  discovered  to  be 
Fowler's  English  Grammar.  From  Part  II.  of 
this  work,  "  Historical  Elements  of  the  English 
Language,"  he  mainly  drew  his  materials.  There 


GARFIELD  THE  HIRAM  STUDENT.  39 

will  be  found  these   lines,  that  he  quoted  with 
much  effect :  — 

"  Then  sad  relief,  from  that  bleak  coast  that  hears 
The  German  Ocean  roar,  deep-blooming,  strong, 
And  yellow-haired,  the  blue-eyed  Saxon  came." 

The  lecture  was  full  of  instruction,  and  opened 
up  to  one  mind  at  least  that  inviting  field,  the 
origin,  history,  and  nature  of  our  noble  mother- 
tongue. 

But  his  studies  and  teaching  did  not  exhaust 
his  activities.  He  entered  into  the  literary  work 
of  the  school  with  great  interest  and  enthusiasm. 
He  was  a  leading  spirit,  first  in  the  Eclectic  Soci- 
ety, and  later  in  the  Philomathean.  He  turned 
his  hand  with  equal  readiness  and  ability  to  the 
essay,  the  oration,  and  the  debate.  No  student's 
voice  was  more  potent  than  his  in  shaping  the 
general  polity  and  tone  of  the  school. 

III.  — THE  WILLIAMS  COLLEGE  INTERREGNUM. 

By  the  close  of  the  spring  term,  1854,  Mr.  Gar- 
field  was  ready  for  college,  and  was  looking  about 
for  an  alma  mater.  He  thought  of  Bethany,  then 
presided  over  by  Alexander  Campbell,  whom  he 
greatly  reverenced.  He  decided  against  Bethany 


40      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

on  three  grounds,  that  he  thus  stated  at  the  time  : 
"  The  course  of  study  is  not  so  extensive  or  thor- 
ough as  in  Eastern  colleges."  "Bethany  leans 
too  heavily  towards  slavery."  "  I  am  the  son  of 
Disciple  parents,  am  one  myself,  and  have  had  but 
little  acquaintance  with  people  of  other  views ; 
and,  having  lived  always  in  the  West,  I  think  it 
will  make  me  more  liberal,  both  in  my  religious 
and  general  views  and  sentiments,  to  go  into  a  new 
circle,  where  I  shall  be  under  new  influence."  So 
he  wrote  to  Brown,  Yale,  and  Williams,  stating 
what  he  had  done,  and  asking  how  long  it  would 
take  him  to  finish  their  courses. 

Says  Garfield,  in  the  letter  just  quoted  from, — 

"  Their  answers  axe  now  before  me.  All  tell  me  I  can 
graduate  in  two  years.  They  are  all  brief  business  notes ; 
but  President  Hopkins  concludes  with  this  sentence :  '  If  you 
come  here,  we  shall  be  glad  to  do  what  we  can  for  you.' 
Other  things  being  so  nearly  equal,  this  sentence  —  which 
seems  to  be  a  kind  of  friendly  grasp  of  the  hand  —  has 
settled  the  question  for  me.  I  shall  start  for  Williams  next 
week." 

Upon  what  small  pivots  do  great  matters  turn ! 
In  due  time  this  sentence  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  will 
appear  in  somebody's  book  upon  turning-points 


GAEFIELD   THE  HIRAM  STUDENT.  41 

in   life.     So  our   Hiram   student   went   away  to 
Williamstown,  feeling,  perhaps,  with  Milton,  — 

"  How  soon  hath  time,  the  subtle  thief  of  youth, 
Stolen  on  his  wing  my  three  and  twentieth  year!" 

But  to  Williamstown  we  cannot  follow  him. 
Our  story  begins  again  at  his  return  to  Hiram  in 
1856.  However,  the  narrative  may  be  interrupted 
to  set  down  in  this  place  some  facts  and  reflec- 
tions that  force  themselves  upon  the  mind. 

Garfield's  three  years  in  Hiram  had  been  suc- 
cessful to  an  extraordinary  degree.  They  had 
been  years  of  wonderful  growth  to  him.  He  had 
gotten  out  of  the  school  all  that  he  could  get :  he 
left  much  of  himself  behind.  He  had  fitted  him- 
self for  the  junior  class  of  an  Eastern  college. 
Indeed,  he  felt  confident  of  his  ability  to  finish 
the  course  in  one  year ;  but,  feeling  the  need  of 
longer  and  more  thorough  training,  he  wisely  de- 
termined to  take  two  years.  He  had  demon- 
strated his  great  ability  as  a  teacher.  He  had 
also  given  evidence  of  superior  power  as  a  public 
speaker.  Accordingly,  he  was  pretty  well  known 
at  the  age  of  twenty-three  to  that  large  circle  of 
which  Hiram  was  the  centre;  and  the  question 
of  his  future  —  more  commonly  shaping  itself 


42      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

thus:  the  pulpit,  or  the  law?  was  often  debated 
with  no  little  interest  in  many  an  Ohio  home. 

As  he  turned  his  face  eastward,  Mr.  Garfield 
probably  did  not  pause  to  answer,  or  even  ask,  the 
question,  "  What  has  Hiram  done  for  me  ?  "  He 
always  became  so  much  a  part  of  every  place,  and 
every  place  so  much  a  part  of  him,  that  he  was 
never  well  fitted  for  such  a  bit  of  self-analysis. 
First,  there  is  the  large  question  of  nature  and 
nurture.  He  held  that  every  character  is  the 
joint  product  of  these  two  causes.  But  how  diffi- 
cult to  assign  to  each  its  proper  share  of  the  prod- 
uct !  Besides,  who  can  tell  the  effect  of  nature 
in  determining  nurture?  Next  comes  up  the 
question,  "Which  would  have  been  better  for 
Garfield, — young  Hiram,  or  old  Exeter  or  An- 
dover  ?  "  At  Hiram  was  freedom,  a  large  society 
of  opening  minds,  instructors  learned  enough  to 
start  him  well  in  his  studies,  and  large  room  for 
ability  and  force  of  character,  of  which  he  had  a 
superabundance.  He  could  do  as  much  as  he 
wanted  to  do,  in  pretty  much  his  own  way ;  and 
he  wanted  to  do  a  great  deal.  The  especial  ad- 
vantages at  Exeter  or  Andover  readily  suggest 
themselves. 

Garfield  always  had  a  warm  side  for  the  small 


GAKFIELD  THE  HIKAM  STUDENT.  43 

schools  in  out-of-the-way  places.  He  thought  that 
the  personal  elements  in  education,  which  he 
mainly  prized,  acted  in  them  with  more  power. 
Late  in  life,  replying  to  what  had  been  some- 
where said  about  necessary  physical  appliances,  he 
said,  — 

"  To  all  that  has  been  said,  I  most  heartily  assent.  No 
words  of  mine  shall  in  any  way  detract  from  the  importance 
of  every  thing  that  has  been  urged;  but  I  am  not  willing 
that  this  discussion  should  close  without  mention  of  the 
value  of  a  true  teacher.  Give  me  a  log  hut,  with  only  a 
simple  bench,  Mark  Hopkins  on  one  end  and  I  on  the  other, 
and  you  may  have  all  the  buildings,  apparatus,  and  libraries 
without  him." 

Miss  Booth  was  the  strong  individual  force  that 
acted  upon  liim  in  Hiram,  as  President  Hopkins 
was  at  Williamstown.  Of  his  indebtedness  to  the 
one,  he  eloquently  testified  in  his  address ;  of  his 
indebtedness  to  the  other,  he  spoke  on  numerous 
occasions.  He  has  been  heard  to  say,  "  I  am  sur- 
prised to  meet  President  Hopkins  —  some  thought 
or  word  of  his — so  often  along  the  path  of  my 
life."  All  of  this  is  most  appreciative  and  gener- 
ous, —  in  a  sense,  both  true  and  just :  nevertheless, 
it  may  well  be  doubted  whether,  to  such  a  nature 
as  Garfield's,  teachers,  after  he  reached  his  twen- 


44      PEESIDENT   GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

tieth  year,  were  so  important  as  he  thought.  It 
may  well  be  questioned,  now  that  he  had  got  his 
bent,  whether  any  school  was  or  could  be  much 
more  to  him  than  a  place  to  spread  his  tent  while 
he  surveyed  the  kingdom  of  knowledge.  Proba- 
bly the  Hiram  students,  as  a  body,  did  more  for 
him  than  the  Hiram  faculty;  and  the  same  may 
be  true  of  the  Williams  students  and  faculty. 
Mr.  Rhodes  justly  said  of  him  in  his  Cleveland 
speech,  "All  men  were  foils  for  his  own  swift 
blades."  He  was  one  of  the  few  who  do  really 

"  Find  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  every  thing." 

However  these  questions  touching  the  growth 
of  this  choice  spirit  are  settled,  it  was  well  for 
Garfield  that  he  took  his  Ohio  training  to  a  New- 
England  college.  He  never  regretted,. either  his 
coming  to  Hiram,  or  his  going  to  WilHamstown. 
He  always  retained  an  unswerving  affection  for 
both  schools.  It  was  well,  too,  that  on  his  gradua- 
tion he  returned  to  his  native  State.  According 
to  Professor  C.  D.  Wilber,  he  was  strongly  tempt- 
ed by  a  twenty-five-hundred-dollar  salary  not  to 
return  to  Hiram.  He  discussed  the  subject  with 
himself,  and  finally  said,  "  They  want  me  at  Hiram. 


GARFIELD   THE   HIRAM   STUDENT.  45 

They  cannot  pay  me  much,  but  I  ought  to  go." 
And  so  he  came  back,  to  receive  a  salary  not  more 
than  one-fourth  of  the  sum  named.  Sense  of 
duty  inspired  his  choice,  and  the  end  vindicated 
his  wisdom. 

The  two  years  at  Williams  College  lie  across 
the  track  of  my.  story.  That  was  an  epoch  of 
peculiar  interest  in  his  life.  From  1850  to  1860 
President  Garfield  was  in  the  formative  stage,  — 
a  period  in  a  man's  life  that  he  always  regarded 
with  peculiar  interest.  He  said,  at  the  Hiram 
commencement  in  1880,  "  Oh,  these  hours  of 
building !  If  the  Superior  Being  of  the  Universe 
would  look  down  upon  the  world  to  find  the 
most  interesting  object,  it  would  be  the  unfin- 
ished, unformed  character  of  young  men  and  of 
young  women."  Still,  interesting  as  those  two 
years  are,  and  notwithstanding  that  they  cut 
the  formative  period  of  his  life  in  two,  they  do 
not  lie  within  the  topic,  "  President  Garfield  in 
Hiram." 

He  graduated  with  honor  Aug.  6,  1856.  Presi- 
dent Hopkins's  baccalaureate  sermon  had  for  its 
subject,  "Self-denial,"  and  closed  thus:  "Go  to 
your  posts;  take  unto  you  the  whole  armor  of 
God ;  watch  the  signals  and  follow  the  footsteps 


46       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

of  your  Leader.  That  leader  is  not  now  in  the 
form  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows;  not  now  does  the 
sweat  of  agony  rain  from  him.  Him  the  armies 
of  heaven  follow;  and  he  hath  on  his  vesture 
and  on  his  thigh  a  name  written,  '  King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords.'  The  conflict  may  be  long, 
but  its  issue  is  not  doubtful.  You  may  fall  upon 
the  field  before  the  final  peal  of  victory ;  but  be 
ye  faithful  unto  death,  and  ye  shall  receive  a 
crown  of  life."  These  sentences  now  read  like 
a  prophecy. 

IV.  — GARFIELD  PRESIDENT  OF  HIRAM. 

In  the  fall  of  1856  Mr.  Garfield  returned  to 
the  Eclectic  Institute  as  teacher  of  ancient  lan- 
guages. He  was  now  nearly  twenty-five  years 
old.  He  entered  upon  his  work  with  his  wonted 
enthusiasm  and  ability,  and  with  greatly  enlarged 
mind  and  resources.  At  the  end  of  the  school 
year,  Principal  Hayden,  after  seven  years  of  ser- 
vice, resigned.  The  School  Board  now  took  this 
action  as  recorded  in  the  minutes  :  — 

"  It  was  resolved,  that  the  present  teachers  of  the  institu- 
tion be  constituted  a  Board  of  Education,  to  conduct  the 
educational  concerns  of  the  school,  subject  to  the  counsel  and 
advice  of  the  Board." 


GARFIELD  PRESIDENT  OF  HIRAM.  47 

This  board  of  instruction1  made  Mr.  Garfield 
its  chairman,  and  he  was  so  published  in  the 
catalogue  for  the  year  1856-57.  There  appears 
to  have  been  some  hesitancy  in  making  him  the 
principal  in  name,  but  he  was  principal  in  fact. 
The  next  year  he  became  principal  in  name  as 
well.  His  style  now  was,  "  Principal,  and  Teacher 
of  Ancient  Languages."  Thus  it  continued  until 
August,  1861,  when  he  went  to  the  army,  and 
his  de  facto  connection  with  the  Institute  ceased. 
But  the  Board  thought  he  might  return,  —  at 
least,  they  were  not  ready  to  part  with  his  name : 
so  he  was  announced  as  principal,  both  in  1862 
and  1863.  He  does  not  appear  in  the  catalogue 
for  1864,  but  re-appears  in  1865  and  1866  as  advi- 
sory principal  and  lecturer.  From  this  time  on, 
he  stands  only  among  the  trustees.  Within  the 
foregoing  chronological  limits,  lie  the  life  and 
services  that  are  now  to  be  described.  As  a 
matter  of  course,  the  heart  of  the  story  will  be 
found  in  the  five  years  reaching  from  1856  to 
1861. 

A  good  preface  to  this  account  of  Garfield's 
life  and  service  as  a  teacher  will  be  furnished  by 

1  Tliis  Board  consisted  of  J.  A.  Garfield,  Norman  Dunshee, 
H.  W.  Everest,  J.  H.  Rhodes,  and  Almeda  A.  Booth. 


48      PBESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

two  anecdotes  that  he  related,  at  widely  separated 
intervals,  concerning  his  experience  as  a  teacher 
in  the  district  schools.  They  are  also  invaluable 
illustrations  of  his  life  and  Character.  The  first 
he  told  to  two  or  three  friends  but  a  short  time 
before  he  left  Mentor  for  Washington,  to  be  in- 
augurated President  of  the  United  States.  The 
subject  under  discussion  at  the  time  was  "  office- 
seeking "  in  general,  and  the  "  second  term  "  in 
particular. 

"  The  fall  that  I  was  eighteen  years  old,  I  travelled  a  con- 
siderable circuit  round  about  Orange  in  quest  of  a  district 
school  to  teach.  I  was  refused  in  one  place  after  another 
for  different  reasons ;  so  that  at  last  I  came  home  tired  and 
discouraged.  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  seeking  posi- 
tions was  not  in  harmony  with  my  nature;  that  I  never 
should  succeed  in  life  if  I  hunted  places ;  and  that  I  would 
make  no  further  effort  in  that  direction,  but  would  wait  and 
see  what  would  come  to  me.  An  hour  or  two  after  reach- 
ing home  with  these  conclusions  fully  wrought  out  in  my 
mind,  a  man  from  an  adjoining  neighborhood  called  at  my 
mother's  house,  and  said  he  was  '  huntin'  widow  Gaffield's 1 
Jimmie.'  He  wanted  a  teacher  for  his  district,  and  he 
'  'lowed  that  Jimmie  would  do.'  I  was  called  in,"  said  the 
President-elect,  "and  a  bargain  was  soon  concluded.  The 
coming  of  this  man  confirmed  me  in  the  opinion  that  place- 

1  A  local  corruption  of  Garfield. 


GARFIELD   PRESIDENT  OP  HIRAM.  49 

seeking  was  not  in  my  line ;  and  I  have  never  asked  any- 
body for  a  place  from  that  day  to  this." 

The  reader  can  reflect  upon  this  story  at  his 
leisure.  Here  it  suffices  to  say,  that,  in  conse- 
quence of  this  contract,  the  future  President  of 
the  United  States  taught  his  first  school.  The 
place  was  the  "Ledge,"  in  Solon,  Cuyahoga 
County,  O.;  the  time,  the  winter  of  1849-50. 
Afterwards  he  taught  two  other  district  schools, 
each  one  term,  —  one  near  Zanesville,  Muskingum 
County ;  and  the  other  in  Warrensville,  Cuyahoga 
County. 

Years  after  Garfield  had  ceased  to  teach,  and 
when  he  had  already  acquired  a  national  reputa- 
tion as  a  statesman,  he  one  day  gave  a  lecture 
to  the  teachers'  class  in  Hiram  College.  It  was 
in  this  lecture  that  he  related  the  second  anec- 
dote :  — 

"  When  I  first  taught  a  district  school,  1  formed  and  car- 
ried out  this  plan :  After  I  had  gone  to  bed  at  night,  I 
threw  back  the  bedclothes  from  one  side  of  the  bed.  Then 
I  smoothed  out  the  sheet  with  my  hand.  Next,  I  mentally 
constructed  on  this  smooth  surface  my  schoolroom.  First 
I  drew  the  aisles ;  here  I  put  the  stove,  there  the  teacher's 
desk ;  in  this  place  the  water-pail  and  cup,  in  that  the  open 
space  at  the  head  of  the  room.  Then  I  put  in  the  seats, 


50      PEESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

and  placed  the  scholars  upon  them  in  their  proper  order. 
I  said,  Here  is  John,  with  Samuel  by  his  side ;  there  Jane 
and  Eliza ;  and  so  on,  until  they  were  all  placed.  Then  I 
took  them  up  in  order,  beginning  next  my  desk  in  this 
manner :  This  is  Johnny  Smith.  What  kind  of  boy  is  he  ? 
What  is  his  mind,  and  what  his  temper?  How  is  he 
doing?  What  is  he  now  as  compared  with  a  week  ago? 
Can  I  do  any  thing  more  for  him  ?  And  so  I  went  on  from 
seat  to  seat,  and  from  pupil  to  pupil,  until  I  had  made  the 
circuit  of  the  room.  I  found  this  study  and  review  of 
my  pupils  of  great  benefit  to  them  and  to  me.  Besides,  my 
ideal  construction,  made  on  the  bed-sheet  in  the  dark,  aided 
me  materially  in  the  work." 

The  reader  can  reflect  upon  this  narrative  also 
at  his  leisure.  Here  it  suffices  to  say,  that  a 
young  man  who  had  the  ingenuity,  patience,  and 
thoughtfulness  to  carry  on  such  work  as  this, 
night  after  night,  could  not  but  succeed  as  a 
district-school  teacher,  not  to  speak  of  higher 
capacities. 

Now  we  will  go  on  with  the  Hiram  story. 

The  field  of  instruction  in  the  Institute  was 
regularly  allotted  to  the  different  teachers.  But 
-the  published  scheme  was  never  fully  carried  out 
in  practice.  The  majority  of  the  students  were 
pursuing  selected  studies.  Calls  for  classes  were 
more  or  less  irregular.  Hence  the  teachers 


GABFIELD  PRESIDENT   OF  HIRAM.  51 

were  compelled  to  accommodate  themselves  to 
the  wants  of  the  students.  Then  their  desire  to 
shun  ruts  and  narrowness,  to  gain  breadth  and 
to  preserve  freshness,  as  well  as  the  desire  to 
carry  their  individual  methods  and  personal  force 
through  the  whole  school,  tended  in  the  same 
direction.  Still,  each  teacher  generally  worked 
within  certain  lines,  though  the  lines  were  not 
very  straight  or  rigid.  Accordingly,  it  must  not 
be  thought  that  Mr.  Garfield  taught  all  the  Latin 
and  Greek,  or  that  he  taught  nothing  else.  He 
taught  classes  in  classics  and  mathematics,  his- 
tory, philosophy,  criticism,  English  literature,  rhet- 
oric, English  analysis,  and  geology.  Certainly  his 
knowledge  of  these  subjects  was  not  that  of  the 
specialist,  but  it  was  sufficient  for  present  de- 
mands. Nor  must  it  be  thought  that  the  demands 
were  small.  The  standard  had  been  greatly  raised 
since  the  day  that  young  Garfield  looked  with 
such  wonder  upon  a  class  in  geometry.  Many 
young  men  and  women  were  then  fitting  for  col- 
lege in  Hiram,  —  some  for  the  Freshman  class,  but 
more  for  the  higher  classes.  Then  there  were 
many  young  men  and  women  of  age,  ability,  and 
character,  who  had  no  thought  of  going  to  college, 
but  wanted  the  "  best  studies ; "  and  these  some- 


52      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

times  tasked  the  powers  of  the  teachers  quite  as 
fully  as  any  others.  Principal  Garfield  took  more 
interest  in  some  studies  than  in  others ;  but  upon 
the  whole  it  was  hard  to  see  that  he  did  not  teach 
all  the  studies  named  equally  well.  At  some  time 
all  the  studies  taught  in  colleges,  and  more  be- 
sides, engaged  his  particular  attention,  and  aroused 
his  special  enthusiasm.  He  introduced  Shaw's 
"  English  Literature,"  and  Kames's  "  Elements  of 
Criticism,"  and  awakened  a  special  interest  in  them. 
He  always  taught  the  class  in  English  analysis. 
This  study  was  a  special  favorite  with  him,  and 
nowhere  else  did  he  more  shine  as  a  teacher. 
Through  this  class  most  of  the  better  scholars  at 
some  time  passed,  even  if  they  considered  them- 
selves thorough  in  it  before.  Probably  no  other 
of  his  classes  is  to-day  remembered  with  equal 
interest  by  so  many  persons.  Then  his  geology 
class,  that  recited  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
cannot  be  forgotten  by  a  single  surviving  member. 
His  method  of  teaching  combined  the  technical 
question,  the  general  question,  the  topic,  and  the 
teacher's  own  discussion  of  the  question  in  hand. 
A  critic  might  have  said  that  the  last  element 
was  too  prominent,  that  he  did  too  much  himself, 
that  he  did  not  so  much  excel  as  a  drill-master 


GARFIELD  PRESIDENT   OF   HIRAM.  53 

and  a  disciplinarian;  but,  if  fruit  is  the  test  of 
method,  it  would  be  hard  to  sustain  the  criticism. 
He  strove  to  awaken  the  student's  faculties.  He 
sought  to  energize  or  vitalize  him.  He  revealed 
the  world  to  the  student,  and  the  student  to  him- 
self. He  stimulated  thought,  created  the  habit 
of  observation  and  reflection,  aroused  courage, 
widened  the  field  of  mental  vision,  and  furnished 
inspiration  in  unlimited  measures.  If  his  regimen 
was  somewhat  deficient  in  the  forces  that  push  the 
student,  it  was  strong  in  the  forces  that  draw  him. 
His  associate  teachers  had  more  than  ordinary 
ability,  and  were  thoroughly  respected  by  the 
school ;  but  those  scholars  who  had  reached  his 
zone  always  made  an  effort,  if  necessary,  to  be  in 
at  least  one  of  his  classes. 

In  the  communication  already  quoted  from, 
President  Everest  of  Butler  University  sets  these 
down  as  Garfield's  striking  characteristics  as  a 
teacher :  — 

"1.  He  was  always  clear  and  certain. 

"2.  He  impressed  the  main  things,  but  passed  perhaps 
too  lightly  over  the  subordinate  portions. 

"  3.  He  had  rare  ability  at  illustration. 

"  4.  He  gave  more  attention  to  the  boy  than  to  the  book. 
He  strove  to  develop  the  student,  not  the  lesson  or  science. 


54      PKESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

"  5.  He  was  abundant  in  praise  of  success,  but  sparing  of 
blame. 

"  6.  He  inspired  his  students  with  a  spirit  of  investiga- 
tion and  conquest. 

"  7.  By  frequent  and  rapid  reviews  he  kept  the  whole 
work  in  hand,  and  gave  it  completeness." 

Principal  Garfield's  chapel  lectures  were  a  great 
source  of  instruction  and  influence.  Of  these 
he  gave  many  hundreds,  ranging  over  education, 
teaching,  studies,  books,  methods  of  study  and 
reading,  physical  geography,  geology,  history,  the 
Bible,  morals,  current  topics,  and  life  questions. 
These  lectures  were  full  of  fresh  facts,  new 
thoughts,  striking  illustrations,  and  were  warm 
with  the  glow  of  his  own  life.  His  two  years  in 
Williams  College  had  given  his  mind  some  new 
facets.  He  brought  back  the  best  thoughts  of  Dr. 
Hopkins,  and  sowed  them  in  Hiram  soil.  His 
mind  was  growing  every  day,  and  the  studies  that 
nourished  him  nourished  his  pupils  as  well.  He 
generally  spoke  from  notes  that  he  had  carefully 
prepared,  and  that  he  carefully  preserved.  If 
these  notes  should  be  brought  forth  from  their 
hiding-place  and  published,  men  would  be  aston- 
ished at  the  sweep  of  his  thought,  the  versatility 
of  his  mind,  and  the  fertility  of  his  resources. 


GARFIELD  PRESIDENT  OF   HIRAM.  55 

He  appeared  frequently  as  a  preacher,  both 
in  the  pulpit  of  the  Hiram  church  and  in  the 
chapel.  His  sermons,  of  which  more  by  and  by, 
added  much  to  his  influence  over  his  students. 
Here  it  should  be  said,  when  he  came  to  the  front 
in  1857,  the  character  of  the  school  somewhat 
changed.  Its  genius  was  less  theological  or  bibli- 
cal, and  more  secular  or  human.  The  ecclesias- 
tical way  of  looking  at  things  somewhat  receded 
with  the  retirement  of  Principal  Hayden.  But 
morals,  religion,  and  Bible  study  were  by  no 
means  forgotten.  Noble  ideals  of  life  and  charac- 
ter, ideals  of  manliness,  courage,  reverence,  and 
truth,  were  constantly  kept  in  view.  What 
Arnold  of  Rugby  called  "  moral  thoughtfulness  " 
—  the  inquiring  love  of  truth  and  practical  love 
of  goodness  —  was  made  prominent.  Charles 
Kingsley  and  Thomas  Hughes  were  a  great  deal 
read  in  Hiram  in  those  days,  and  the  Hiram  type 
of  Christianity  became  somewhat  "  muscular." 
Withal,  such  of  the  students  as  could  receive  it 
were  filled  with  the  Principal's  own  largeness  of 
nature. 

His  rhetorical  class  —  known  in  those  days  as 
"  Garfield's  division"  —  was  a  great  theatre  of 
interest  and  improvement.  He  had  great  skill  in 


56       PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

conducting  such  a  class ;  .especially  was  he  a  help- 
ful critic.  This  class  will  not  be  forgotten  by  its 
members,  nor  did  he  forget  it.  One  of  his  remi- 
niscences in  his  re-union  speech,  June  10,  1880, 
was  this :  — 

"Some  may  remember  the  time  that  I  had  an  exercise 
which  I  remember  with  great  pleasure,  —  when  I  called  a 
young  lad  to  the  rostrum,  and  said,  '  Now,  in  the  next  two 
minutes,  you  will  speak  to  the  best  of  your  ability  on  the 
following  subject ; '  and  gave  him  the  subject,  and  let  him 
wrestle  with  it.  It  was  a  trying  thing  for  the  young  lads, 
but  they  very  seldom  got  thrown." 

Strong  as  was  Mr.  Garfield's  intellectual  side, 
his  moral  side  was  even  stronger.  He  was  full 
of  appreciation  and  generosity.  He  was  keenly 
alive  to  the  rights  of  men,  even  the  lowest  and 
the  least  worthy.  He  respected  human  nature. 
Tenderness,  compassion,  and  sympathy  abounded 
in  him.  His  sense  of  justice  to  others  was  keen, 
no  matter  whether  he  always  insisted  upon  its 
being  rendered  to  himself  or  not.  It  hurt  him  to 
hurt  others.  He  interested  himself  in  the  young 
and  in  the  weak.  He  often  joined  the  boys  in 
their  sports  on  the  campus.  Once  two  of  his  spe- 
cial friends  were  "  choosing  sides  "  for  the  game. 


GAEFIELD   PRESIDENT   OF  HIRAM.  57 

Two  small  hoys  appeared,  and  asked  to  be  chosen. 
The  choosers  objected  to  them  that  they  were 
small,  and  would  spoil  the  play.  "If  they  can- 
not play,  I  will  not,"  said  Garfield.  They  were 
chosen,  and  the  play  went  on.  In  his  address  on 
"  The  Elements  of  Success "  will  be  found  this 
paragraph :  — 

"  I  feel  a  profounder  reverence  for  a  boy  than  for  a  man. 
I  never  meet  a  ragged  boy  of  the  street  without  feeling  that 
I  may  owe  him  a  salute,  for  I  know  not  what  possibilities 
may  be  buttoned  up  under  his  shabby  coat.  When  I  meet 
you  in  the  full  flush  of  mature  life,  I  see  nearly  all  there 
is  of  you ;  but  among  these  boys  are  the  great  men  of  the 
future,  —  the  heroes  of  the  next  generation,  the  philosophers, 
the  statesmen,  the  philanthropists,  the  great  reformers  and 
moulders  of  the  next  age.  Therefore,  I  say,  there  is  a 
peculiar  charm  to  me  in  the  exhibitions  of  young  people 
engaged  in  the  business  of  education." 

General  Garfield  once  told  some  Hiram  students, 
that  no  man  is  ever  loved  simply  because  he 
has  a  great  or  brilliant  mind.  He  may  be  much 
respected,  or  greatly  admired,  but  not  loved. 
The  intellectual  ray  is  powerful,  but  also  fierce 
and  pitiless.  It  is  not  until  the  heart  ray  blends 
with  the  mental,  and  tempers  it,  as  the  heat  ray 
the  light  ray  of  the  sunbeam,  that  the  emotive 


58       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

nature  is  touched.  Feeling  lies  deeper  than  logic 
can  penetrate.  Only  the  heart  can  speak  to  the 
heart.  In  harmony  with  this  law  so  beautifully 
formulated,  the  students  respected  and  admired 
his  ability ;  but  the  force  that  won  them  was  the 
heart  force.  Garfield's  great,  tender  heart,  his 
all-embracing  sympathy,  his  nice  delicacy  of  feel- 
ing, his  quick  appreciation  of  every  thing  ethically 
good  or  spiritually  beautiful,  will  be  remembered 
farther  and  longer  than  his  powerful  logical  facul- 
ties or  his  ample  knowledge.  He  called  out  the 
demonstrativeness  and  affections  of  men  in  a  way 
almost  unprecedented.  His  heart,  none  but  the 
utterly  obdurate  could  resist.  To  him  the  phleg- 
matic would  stir,  the  cold  warm,  the  icy  melt. 
When  he  put  his  great  brotherly  arm  around 
a  discouraged  or  fainting  boy,  —  poor,  homesick, 
or  blind  to  the  way  before  him,  —  the  boy  very 
likely  shed  tears ;  but  somehow  the  mists  began 
to  clear  away  from  his  vision,  and  his  heart  grew 
strong.  Said  one  years  ago,  "  Then  began  to 
grow  up  in  me  an  admiration  and  love  for  Gar- 
field  that  has  never  abated,  and  the  like  of  which 
I  have  never  known.  A  bow  of  recognition,  or 
a  single  word,  from  him,  was  to  me  an  inspira- 
tion." 


GABFIELD  PRESIDENT   OF  HIRAM.  59 

Those  who  have  witnessed  the  marvellous  draw- 
ing-out of  men's  hearts  towards  General  Carfield 
in  the  last  year,  have  simply  seen  on  a  vast  scale 
what  was  seen  in  Hiram  school  more  than  a  score 
of  years  ago.  The  revelations  of  Washington 
and  Elberon  have  caused  little  or  no  surprise  to 
the  Hiram  fellowship :  only  the  lamentable  occa- 
sion that  brought  out  the  revelations  has  been  a 
surprise  to  them.  The  faith  and  fortitude,  the 
constancy  and  courage,  the  patience  and  piety, 
that  shone  so  bright  in  the  White  House  and  in 
Mr.  Francklyn's  cottage  by  the  sea,  are  just  what 
this  fellowship,  the  occasion  being  given,  would 
have  expected.  It  was  said  that  the  eyes  of  the 
wife  of  William  the  Silent  were  full  of  unwept 
tears  :  similarly  the  heart  of  the  late  President  was 
full  of  unshed  goodness,  gentleness,  and  tender- 
ness. 

Perhaps  the  foregoing  paragraphs  taken  alone 
will  create  a  false  impression.  Let  it  not  be  sup- 
posed that  the  Hiram  regimen  was  only  soft  and 
winning.  The  Principal's  hand  was  as  firm  as  his 
heart  was  tender ;  and  on  due  occasion  he  could  be 
exceedingly  severe.  He  never  scolded,  never  be- 
came angry ;  but  his  reproofs  were  all  the  sterner 
because  of  the  large  background  of  feeling. 


60       PEESIDENT  GABFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

Boys  of  ability  and  promise  came  to  Hiram  in 
the  period  of  1856-61,  as  they  still  do,  having 
meagre  ideas  of  studies  and  of  themselves.  They 
expected,  possibly  because  they  had  given  the 
matter  small  thought,  to  study  two  or  three  terms, 
and  then  to  go  back  to  the  farm  or  the  shop.  In 
time  many  of  these  were  touched  by  Garfield's 
energizing  power.  Their  minds  began  to  open ; 
new  aspirations  began  to  stir  in  their  hearts ;  and 
they  longed  to  carry  their  studies  beyond  the 
limits  first  set.  Often  these  boys,  had  troubles 
peculiarly  their  own.  Some  were  poor ;  some 
were  tethered  to  home  ;  some  wanted  courage  and 
self-reliance ;  some  tended  to  despondency.  Mr. 
Garfield  found  them  out.  He  remembered  his 
own  experience.  He  seemed  to  read  by  intuition 
a  mind  that  teemed  with  new  facts,  ideas,  and 
impressions ;  that  was  stirred  by  a  new  spirit  and 
power ;  that  sighed  for  wider  and  higher  activity. 
These  students  he  aided  with  his  counsel  and  en- 
couragement. He  advised  and  sometimes  expos- 
tulated with  parents.  He  took  great  pleasure  in 
"  capturing  boys,"  as  he  called  it ;  and  more  than 
one  was  saved  to  himself  and  to  the  world  by  his 
friendly  mediation.  A  boy  who  wanted  to  study, 
and  was  poor,  called  out  his  full  interest.  The 


GARFIELD   PEESIDENT   OF   HIRAM.  61 

following  letter,  written  to  a  district-school  teacher 
who  was  struggling  with  the  hard  questions  of  life, 
—  a  letter  already  often  published,  —  will  illustrate 
the  bent  of  his  nature  :  — 

"HiBAM,  Jan.  15,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAR  BROTHER,  —  I  was  made  very  glad,  a  few  days 
since,  by  the  receipt  of  your  letter.  It  was  a  very  acceptable 
New  Year's  present,  and  I  take  great  pleasure  in  responding. 
You  have  given  a  vivid  picture  of  a  community  in  which 
intelligence  and  morality  have  been  neglected,  and  I  am 
glad  you  are  disseminating  the  light.  Certainly  men  must 
have  some  knowledge  in  order  to  do  right.  God  first  said, 
'Let  there  be  light:'  afterwards  he  said,  'It  is  very  good.' 
I  am  glad  to  hear  of  your  success  in  teaching,  but  I  approach 
with  much  more  interest  the  consideration  of  the  question 
you  have  proposed.  Brother  mine,  it  is  not  a  question  to  be 
discussed  in  the  spirit  of  debate,  but  to  be  thought  over  and 
prayed  over  as  a  question  '  out  of  which  are  the  issues  of 
life.'  You  will  agree  with  me,  that  every  one  must  decide 
and  direct  his  own  course  in  life;  and  the  only  service 
friends  can  afford  is  to  give  us  the  data  from  which  we  must 
draw  our  own  conclusion  and  decide  our  course.  Allow  me, 
then,  to  sit  beside  you,  and  look  over  the  field  of  life,  and 
see  what  are  its  aspects.  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  advise 
every  one  to  undertake  the  work  of  a  liberal  education : 
indeed,  I  believe  that  in  two-thirds  of  the  cases  such  advice 
would  be  unwise.  The  great  body  of  the  people  will  be,  and 
ought  to  be,  (intelligent)  farmers  and  mechanics;  and,  in 
many  respects,  these  pass  the  most  independent  and  happy 


62      PBESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

lives.  But  God  has  endowed  some  of  his  children  with 
desires  and  capabilities  for  a  more  extended  field  of  labor 
and  influence ;  and  so  every  life  should  be  shaped  according 
to  'what  the  man  hath.'  Now,  in  reference  to  yourself,  / 
know  you  have  capabilities  for  occupying  positions  of  high 
and  important  trust  in  the  scenes  of  active  life ;  and  I  am 
sure  you  will  not  call  it  flattery  in  me,  nor  egotism  in  your- 
self, to  say  so.  Tell  me :  do  you  not  feel  a  spirit  stirring 
within  you  that  longs  to  know,  to  do,  and  to  dare, — to  hold 
converse  with  the  great  world  of  thought ;  that  holds  before 
you  some  high  and  noble  object  to  which  the  vigor  of  your 
mind  and  the  strength  of  your  arm  may  be  given  ?  Do  you 
not  have  longings  like  these,  which  you  breathe  to  no  one, 
and  which  you  feel  must  be  heeded,  or  you  will  pass  through 
life  unsatisfied  and  regretful?  I  am  sure  you  have  them, 
and  they  will  forever  cling  round  your  heart  till  you  obey 
their  mandate.  They  are  the  voices  of  that  nature  which 
God  has  given  you,  and  which,  when  obeyed,  will  bless  you 
and  your  fellow-men.  Now,  all  this  might  be  true,  and  yet 
it  might  be  your  duty  not  to  follow  that  course.  If  your 
duty  to  your  father  or  your  mother  demands  that  you  take 
another,  I  shall  rejoice  to  see  you  taking  that  other  course. 
The  path  of  duty  is  where  we  all  ought  to  walk,  be  that 
where  it  may.  But  I  sincerely  hope  you  will  not,  without 
an  earnest  struggle,  give  up  a  course  of  liberal  study.  Sup- 
pose you  could  not  begin  your  study  again  till  after  your 
majority.  It  will  not  be  too  late  then :  but  you  will  gain  in 
many  respects;  you  will  have  more  maturity  of  mind  to 
appreciate  whatever  you  may  study.  You  may  say  you  will 
be  too  old  to  begin  the  course ;  but  how  could  you  better 


GAKFIELD  PBESIDENT   OF  HIRAM.  63 

spend  the  earlier  days  of  life  ?    We  should  not  measure  life 
by  the  days  and  moments  that  we  pass  on  earth. 

'  The  life  is  measured  by  the  soul's  advance; 
The  enlargement  of  its  powers ;  the  expanded  field 
Wherein  it  ranges,  till  it  burns  and  glows 
"With  heavenly  joy,  with  high  and  heavenly  hope.' 

"It  need  be  no  discouragement  that  you  be  obliged  to 
hew  your  own  way,  and  pay  your  own  charges.  You  can 
go  to  school  two  terms  every  year,  and  pay  your  own  way. 
I  know  this,  for  I  did  so  when  teachers'  wages  were  much 
lower  than  they  are  now.  It  is  a  great  truth,  that '  where 
there  is  a  will,  there  is  a  way.'  It  may  be  that  by  and  by 
your  father  could  assist  you.  It  may  be  that  even  now  he 
could  let  you  commence  on  your  own  resources,  so  that  you 
could  begin  immediately.  Of  this  you  know,  and  I  do  not. 
I  need  not  tell  you  how  glad  I  should  be  to  assist  you  in 
your  work ;  but,  if  you  cannot  come  to  Hiram  while  I  am 
here,  I  shall  still  hope  to  hear  that  you  are  determined  to  go 
on  as  soon  as  the  time  will  permit.  Will  you  not  write  me 
your  thoughts  on  this  whole  subject,  and  tell  me  your  pros- 
pects ?  We  are  having  a  very  good  time  in  the  school  this 
winter.  Give  my  love  to  Rolden  and  Louise,  and  believe  me 
always  your  friend  and  brother,  J.  A.  GARFIELD. 


"P.  S. — Miss  Booth  and  Mr.  Rhodes  send  their  love  to 
you.  Henry  James  was  here,  and  made  me  a  good  visit  a 
few  days  ago.  He  is  doing  well.  He  and  I  have  talked  of 
going  to  see  you  this  winter.  I  fear  we  cannot  do  it.  How 


64       PEESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

far  is  it  from  here  ?    Was  it  prophetic  that  my  last  word  to 
you  ended  on  the  picture  of  Congress  Capitol  ?  " l 

He  seemed  always  to  say  and  do  the  right  thing 
at  the  right  time.  His  wit  never  came  too  late. 
Even  trivial  things  became  potent  because  he  did 
them.  One  student  points  with  affectionate  pride 
to  the  words,  "  carpe  diem,"  in  Garfield's  hand,  on 
the  fly-leaf  of  his  Horace.  Another  has  shown 
me  this  page  of  autobiography,  that  he  wrote 
many  years  ago.  The  scene  lies  in  the  fall  term 
of  1856,  the  first  after  the  return  from  "Williams- 
town  :  — 

"  I  had  to  leave  school  at  the  close  of  the  term  for  finan- 
cial and  home  reasons.  I  was  exceedingly  anxious  to  go 
on.  My  faculties  were  pretty  fully  worked  up;  the  king- 
dom of  knowledge  stretched  away  before  me  on  every  hand ; 
my  mind  was  opening  on  many  questions.  Life  on  the 
farm,  or  any  life  that  ignored  study,  became  more  and  more 
painful  to  me.  My  state  of  mind  became  known  to  a  few 
friends,  who  did  what  they  could  with  their  sympathy. 
Garfield  tried  to  steady  me  and  give  me  courage.  At  last 
the  end  came.  After  participating  in  some  public  literary 
exercises,  I  withdrew  from  the  chapel.  A  few  friends,  Gar- 
field  among  them,  went  with  me  to  the  lower  hall,  where  we 
said  good-by.  They  returned  to  the  chapel ;  and  I  started 

1  The  letter  is  written  on  "  Congress  "  paper.  The  last  word 
of  the  previous  sentence  is  on  the  picture  of  the  Capitol. 


GARFIELD   PRESIDENT  OF   HIRAM.  65 

homeward,  fearing  that  I  should  go  to  school  no  more. 
When  I  had  gone  many  miles,  I  discovered  under  the  thread 
of  my  hat-lining  a  note  that  ran  thus  :  — 

"  '  You  need  to  guard  against  a  tone,  for  I  see  that  you  are  a 
little  inclined  to  fall  into  a  measured  rhythm.  You  say  sense 
instead  of  since.  JAMES.' 

"  How  much  influence  that  note  has  had  upon  my  life," 
the  page  reads,  "  I  do  not  know ;  but  I  feel  sure  that  it  was 
not  small." 

Perhaps  it  is  needless  to  say  that  such  a  teacher 
and  such  a  man  was  very  successful  as  a  school 
administrator.  He  had  nothing  of  the  regulation 
schoolmaster  about  him,  and  he  put  red  tape  to 
small  use.  He  never  spent  his  force  on  little  things. 
He  understood  what  was,  and  what  was  not,  essen- 
tial to  discipline  and  good  order ;  and  he  secured 
the  first  all  the  more  readily  because  he  was  indif- 
ferent to  the  second.  He  always  had  a  code  of 
printed  rules  that  he  expounded  each  term;  he 
exacted  weekly  reports  of  conduct :  but  his  own 
personality  was  worth  far  more  than  both  rules 
and  reports.  His  management  of  disciplinary 
cases  was  skilful.  On  one  occasion,  after  morning 
prayers,  he  read  impressively  selections  from  Prov. 
vii.  He  added,  "...  [naming  three  young  men] 
are  expelled  from  this  school."  Not  another  word 


66      PEESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

was  said,  but  the  whole  made  a  profound  impres- 
sion. He  had  unusual  power  in  controlling  and 
influencing  bad  boys.  He  did  not  always  make 
them  good  ;  far  from  it :  but  he  had  so  much  heart 
and  nature,  was  so  free  from  cant  and  affectation, 
that  rough  fellows  who  despised  a  religious  pro- 
fession respected  and  loved  him.  Many  a  boy  was 
thus  inclined  towards  goodness,  whom  austerity 
and  pretension  would  have  driven  to  evil. 

President  Garfield  left  the  academy  for  the  field 
and  the  forum  at  the  age  of  thirty  years.  But 
this  was  not  until  he  had  demonstrated  his  capa- 
city for  the  highest  educational  work  and  honor. 
He  had  taught  twenty-four  terms:  viz.,  three  in 
the  district  school,  six  in  Hiram  before  going  to 
college,  and  fifteen  afterwards,  —  eight  years  in  all. 
Had  he  remained  an  educator,  which  he  had  not 
intended  to  do  more  than  he  had  intended  to 
preach,  he  would  have  proved  himself  worthy  of 
the  highest  position  in  the  land.  Other  things 
being  equal,  he  was  never  greater  than  in  Hiram 
in  the  years  1856  to  1861.  He  came  in  contact 
with  from  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  to  three 
hundred  students  a  term,  of  all  ages  from  fifteen 
to  twenty-five,  and  of  all  grades  of  ability.  These 
students  he  fired  with  enthusiasm.  The  ordinary 


GARFIELD   PRESIDENT   OF   HIRAM.  67 

terms  of  respect  and  affection  do  not  meet  the 
case.  Their  idea  of  him  was  the  largest  that  they 
were  capable  of  forming.  They  could  think  of 
nothing  more.  It  is  common  for  students  to 
form  exaggerated  opinions  of  their  teachers, — 
opinions  that  larger  knowledge  of  men  generally 
shatters.  But  not  so  in  this  case.  As  their 
minds  grew  with  years,  he  grew  too ;  and  they 
never  had  occasion  to  measure  him  over  again. 
As  these  young  hero-worshippers  went  out  from 
Hiram,  some  to  college  and  some  to  business,  Mr. 
Garfield  was  the  standard  by  whom  they  measured 
men.  As,  with  rapturous  devotion,  they  told  men 
of  his  qualities,  they  were  met  sometimes  with 
incredulity,  sometimes  with  a  pitying  smile,  some- 
times with  a  sneer.  They  were  told  that  Mr.  Gar- 
field  might  answer  very  well  for  a  little  place  like 
Hiram,  but  that  they  must  not  expect  to  see  men 
accept  their  estimate  of  him.  But  they  continued 
to  insist  that  time  would  show  him  equal  to  the 
highest  honors.  The  very  title  by  which  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  call  him  at  school  clung  to 
their  lips.  Hiram  was  not  then  a  college,  and  the 
teachers  were  not  commonly  called  professors. 
He  became  colonel,  general,  representative,  sen- 
ator, and  president ;  but  plain  "  Mr.  Garfield " 


68      PBESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

always  seemed  to  best  befit  Hiram  students.  Still 
further,  his  home  was  in  Hiram  for  many  years 
after  he  ceased  to  teach.  His  relations  to  the 
school  and  to  the  community  in  those  years  will 
soon  be  described.  Here  it  suffices  to  say,  his 
influence  was  largely  felt  by  the  students,  even 
when  he  did  not  know  their  names  or  faces. 
What  is  more,  to  gain  his  approval  in  school,  or  to 
be  worthy  of  it  afterwards,  was  an  ideal  that  many 
a  young  man  or  woman  carried  out  into  life. 
These  things  Mr.  Garfield  did  naturally,  and 
almost  unconsciously.  His  method  was  spontane- 
ity. However,  as  years  went  by,  his  Hiram  friends 
were  able  to  render  him  substantial  service  in  his 
public  career.  And  this  they  were  always  glad  to 
do.  To  serve  him,  some  of  them  hardly  counted 
their  lives  dear  unto  themselves. 

Perhaps  people  outside  the  Hiram  fellowship 
should  make  some  allowance  for  the  enthusiasm 
of  youth,  and  for  the  illusions  that  time  works. 
However  that  may  be,  I  cannot  refrain  from 
making  quotations  from  two  private  communi- 
cations recently  received.  Both  are  from  old 
Hiram  students;  one  is  an  alumnus  of  Williams, 
and  the  other  of  Oberlin :  — 


GARFIELD  PKESIDENT   OF  HIBAM.  69 

"  One  day  in  reading  the  eleventh  ode  of  Horace,  Book 
I.,  he  had  my  book;  and  when  it  came  back  to  me  he  had 
written  on  a  fly-leaf  the  phrase  'carpe  diem,'  as  a  kind  of 
motto.  I  have  the  book  still ;  and,  though  the  pencil-marks 
are  somewhat  dim,  I  shall  keep  this  book.  When  we  wanted 
a  motto  for  the  Delphic,  he  gave  us  '  Possunt  quia  posse 
videntur,'  and  translated  it  for  us,  '  They  are  strong  because 
they  think  they  are  strong.'  Both  of  these  are  real  Garfield 
mottoes ;  and  I  have  thought,  that,  while  he  was  wonderfully 
gifted  by  nature,  few  men  ever  improved  their  opportunities 
as  he  did.  He  not  only  had  courage  and  inspiration  for 
himself,  but  he  filled  every  one  who  approached  him  with 
much  of  his  own  spirit.  Now  that  he  is  gone,  and  the 
vision  has  fled,  I  feel  like  using  the  words  of  the  disciples 
who  came  from  Emmaus,  'Did  not  our  heart  burn  within 
us  while  he  talked  with  us  by  the  way  ? ' 

"  I  have  been  thinking  that  some  one  should  write  a 
paper  or  lecture  about  Garfield  as  a  teacher.  I  really  feel 
that  he  was  one  of  the  greatest  teachers  who  have  appeared 
in  this  country.  What  wisdom,  what  power,  what  inspira- 
tion, there  was  in  him !  It  has  been  my  fortune  to  enjoy 
the  acquaintance  of  some  very  distinguished  teachers ;  but 
even  Dr.  Hopkins  seems  to  me  far  inferior  to  '  Mr.  Gar- 
field.'  He  taught  all  his  life,  —  in  the  pulpit,  on  the  plat- 
form, and  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  Instead  of  laboring 
for  brilliant  periods  and  high-sounding  perorations,  he  en- 
deavored to  make  his  subjects  understood,  and  to  teach  the 
people  the  science  of  government." 


70      PKESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND   EDUCATION. 

Too  much  prominence  cannot  be  given  to  the 
fact  that  Gen.  Garfield  taught  all  his  life.  Nor 
is  it  easy  to  over-estimate  the  influence  of  his 
teacher-life  upon  his  whole  public  career.  No 
doubt  he  would  have  taken  a  strong  interest  in 
public  education,  had  he  never  taught ;  but  his 
experience  as  a  teacher  greatly  widened  and 
deepened  his  interest.  Besides,  that  experience 
profoundly  influenced  his  manner  of  thought  and 
discussion.  To  instruct  his  hearers,  to  throw 
light  upon  his  subject,  was  always  his  supreme 
ambition  in  public  speaking.  An  old  Hiram  stu- 
dent, who  often  heard  him  on  the  stump,  once 
said,  "  The  General  never  succeeds  so  well  in 
dealing  with  a  great  audience  as  when  he  han- 
dles it  just  as  he  handled  his  class."  Naturally, 
the  educators  of  the  land  took  great  pride  in  him 
as  a  statesman ;  and,  now  that  he  is  dead,  some 
affectionately  call  him  "  our  teacher  Presi- 
dent." 

A  lady  who  has  contributed  other  valuable 
memorabilia  to  this  sketch  thus  writes  of  Gar- 
field's  student  and  teacher  days  :  — 

"  I  have  often  thought  a  complete  conduct  of  life  might 
be  made  from  his  apt  quotations  and  happy  generalizations. 
His  studious  habits  never  gave  him  a  pre-occupied  air.  He 


QAEFIELD   PRESIDENT  OF  HIRAM.  71 

seemed  so  to  command  his  time  that  leisure  belonged  to  him 
as  much  as  study. 

"I  was  never  his  classmate,  but  was  once  a  fellow- 
member  of  a  vacation  lyceum  that  met  in  the  lower  chapel. 
The  lyceum  had  night  sessions ;  and  the  darkness  was  made 
apparent  by  the  tallow  candles,  whose  tendency  to  drip  was 
a  constant  menace.  When  any  one  read  an  essay,  a  mar- 
shal accompanied  him  to  the  rostrum,  and  illuminated  the 
face,  if  not  the  paper,  of  the  reader.  Mr.  Garfield  read 
a  paper,  '  The  Millennium.'  He  was  a  firm  believer  in  a 
swift-coming  millennium ;  he  cited  authorities  to  prove  that 
it  was  surely  coming;  proved  its  desirability,  and  quoted 
some  very  good  poetry ;  but  wound  up  with,  '  Let  us,  there- 
fore, do  all  that  we  can  to  hasten  the  millennium.'  A  stu- 
dent who  had  actually  printed  some  of  his  own  poetry  was 
critic.  He  criticised  the  'Let  us.'  General  Garfield  was 
accustomed  to  say  that  this  criticism  was  of  great  value 
to  him,  and  that  then  and  there  he  dropped  the  hortatory 
'  Let  us.' 

" '  I  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met,'  was  one  of  his 
favorite  quotations.  In  his  class-room  his  personality  was 
as  beneficent,  as  all-pervasive,  as  the  air  we  breathe.  Each 
student  was  etched  upon  his  memory  so  that  he  never  forgot 
a  name,  face,  or  initial.  Often  this  remembrance  brought 
tears  of  joy  to  the  eyes  of  his  former  pupils  after  the  teacher 
was  lost  in  the  statesman.  He  once  said  of  himself,  'Of 
two  courses,  the  one  offering  improvement,  and  the  other 
pecuniary  reward,  I  have  always  sought  to  choose  the  one 
that  offered  improvement.' " 


72       PEESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

Mr.  Garfield's  administration  lifted  the  Eclectic 
Institute  into  new  prominence.  The  attendance 
of  students  did  not  indeed  increase,  owing  to  the  - 
growing  competition  of  other  schools,  especially 
within  the  Disciple  pale ;  but  its  character  was 
raised,  and  its  influence  was  enlarged.  There 
was  a  higher  standard  of  scholarship.  Hiram  cul- 
ture became  more  mature.  Students  outside  of 
the  church  were  drawn  into  the  school  in  increas- 
ing numbers.  Educators  became  familiar  with 
the  name  of  Hiram  and  its  head.  The  scope  of 
the  work  done  is  pretty  fully  shown  by  the  Princi- 
pal's report  to  the  State  Commissioner  of  Common 
Schools,  for  the  year  1858.  It  is  here  somewhat 
condensed :  — 

"  Students  since  the  founding  of  the  Institute,  counting 
by  terms,  5,045;  males  2,881,  females  2,164.  Twenty-five 
students  have  graduated  from  regular  colleges,  and  ten  are 
now  in  college.  The  Board  of  Instruction  consists  of  a 
principal  and  seven  associate  teachers,  four  male  and  three 
female.  The  number  of  students  enrolled  for  the  year  end- 
ing Aug.  31,  1858,  by  terms,  as  before,  520.  Two  have  en- 
tered college  during  the  year,  and  eight  now  here  are  one 
year  advanced  in  the  college  course.  Number  of  students 
studying  common  branches,  250 ;  ancient  languages,  75 ; 
modern,  eight ;  higher  English  branches,  190. 

"  The  aim  of  the  school  is  to  hold  the  rank  of  a  first-clasa 


GAKFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK.  73 

collegiate  seminary ;  to  train  teachers  for  their  duty  in  the 
public  schools,  and  to  prepare  students  for  an  advanced 
standing  in  college.  One  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Eclectic 
is  a  clause  in  its  charter  providing  for  the  introduction  of 
the  Bible  as  a  text-book.  It  is  introduced  in  no  sectarian 
attitude;  but  the  sacred  literature,  history,  and  morals  of 
the  Bible  are  regarded  as  legitimate  theme  for  academic  in- 
struction. The  Institute  is  constantly  increasing  in  influ- 
ence and  number  of  students,  and  is  now  more  prosperous 
than  ever." 

V.-GARFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK. 

But  teaching  and  lecturing  did  not  exhaust 
Mr.  Garfield's  activity.  He  was  all  the  time 
carrying  on  important  outside  work  in  several 
fields.  This  must  now  be  sketched,  not  indeed 
fully,  but  for  illustration. 

First,  may  be  mentioned  his  labors  at  teachers' 
institutes.  His  ability  as  a  teacher,  and  especially 
as  a  lecturer,  strongly  recommended  him  to  the 
institute  committees  as  well  as  to  the  teachers 
who  attended  them.  Frequent  calls  for  lectures 
came  to  him  from  the  various  lecture  associations 
round  about.  Admirable  lectures  on  "  Sir  Walter 
Seott"  and  "Germany,"  as  well  as  other  topics, 
lie  to-day  among  his  unpublished  papers. 

He   preached   more   or  less-  before  he  went  to 


74       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

college.  At  college  he  preached  frequently  to 
two  or  three  small  churches  of  Disciples  within 
reach  of  Williamstown.  After  his  return  to 
Hiram,  he  continued  to  preach  until  he  went 
into  the  army.  For  five  full  years,  he  preached 
somewhere  nearly  every  Sunday.  A  number  of 
churches  can  be  named  to  which  he  preached 
"  one-half  his  time "  for  several  years.  He  ap- 
peared occasionally  in  the  pulpits  of  churches 
where  he  had  no  regular  engagements.  At  the 
great  "yearly  meetings,"  where  thousands  gath- 
ered under  the  old  "Bedford  tent"  or  under  the 
shade,  he  was  a  favorite  preacher.  His  sermons 
live  only  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  heard  them. 
They  were  strong  in  the  ethical  rather  than  in  the 
distinctively  evangelical  element.  He  had  small 
interest  in  purely  theological  or  ecclesiastical 
topics.  He  inclined  to  Coleridge's  canon,  "  That 
is  truth  which  finds  me."  His  stricter  brethren 
found  much  fault  with  him  because  he  was  not 
more  denominational ;  some  said  he  lacked  "  unc- 
tion : "  but  the  people,  wherever  he  went,  would 
turn  out  to  hear  Garfield  preach.  He  greatly 
admired  the  life  and  character  of  Paul  the  apostle  ; 
and  one  of  his  ablest  sermons,  remembered  by 
many  to  this  day, .was  upon  that  subject.  In 


GAEFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK.  75 

August,  1860,  Mr.  Campbell  and  Mr.  Garfield 
attended  the  Stark  County  Yearly  Meeting  at 
Alliance,  O.  The  old  preacher  preached  Sunday 
morning,  the  young  one  Sunday  afternoon.  Mr. 
Robert  Moffet,  now  of  Cleveland,  O.,  has  just 
reproduced  from  his  "sketch-book"  a  report  of 
Garfield's  sermon,  written  at  the  time.  No  doubt 
many  readers  will  be  glad  to  see  the  framework 
of  a  Garfield  sermon. 


"He  took  for  his  text  the  following  passages:  'In  him 
was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men'  (John  i.  4). 
'  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men  that  they  may  see  your 
good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven' 
(Matt.  v.  16). 

"  In  the  exordium  he  drew  a  contrast  between  the  giving 
of  the  old  law,  and  the  giving  of  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life 
in  Christ  Jesus.  The  one  was  given  amid  the  awful  thun- 
der and  smoke  of  Sinai;  the  other,  amid  the  quiet  and 
glory  of  nature's  mountain  scenery  in  Judea.  The  one  was 
given  in  a  manner  to  terrify  the  people;  the  other,  in  cir- 
cumstances which  invited  the  multitude  to  draw  near  to 
Jesus.  The  one  was  the  awful  voice  of  the  unseen  God; 
the  other,  the  voice  of  God  in  a  Friend  and  Brother. 

"  He  then  took  up  the  subject  of  life  and  light  as  found 
in  the  texts. 

"I.  THE  LAW  OF  ITS  BEING:  constitutional  law,  —  the 
law  by  which  this  life  must  be  in  us. 


76      PRESIDENT   GAKFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

"  1.  We  must  be  in  him.  Spiritual  life  is  spiritual  union 
with  Christ. 

"  2.  The  union  must  be  intimate.  When  a  scion  is  grafted 
into  the  stock,  care  is  taken  to  establish  a  very  close  and 
intimate  union,  so  that  the  life  of  the  tree  or  vine  may  be 
imparted  to  it.  So  our  union  with  Christ  must  be  very 
intimate.  External  forms  do  not  constitute  an  intimate 
union.  There  must  be  the  faith  and  love  of  the  heart. 
There  must  be  a  complete  surrender  of  the  will  to  Christ. 

"3.  As  the  scion  grafted  into  the  stock  must  be  capable 
of  receiving  life,  —  must  not  be  dead,  —  so  the  man  grafted 
into  Christ  must  not  be  totally  dead,  but  must  be  capable  of 
receiving  life  from  the  fountain  of  life,  —  Christ  Jesus.  '  If 
any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature.'  He  has  been 
quickened  from  his  '  death  in  trespasses  and  in  sins.' 

"  II.  THE  LAW  OF  ITS  ACTION  :  — 

"  1.  The  life  of  Christ  transferred  becomes  light.  When 
we  take  Christ  for  our  example,  when  we  draw  our  inspira- 
tion from  him,  when  his  life  is  in  us  as  a  controlling  inspira- 
tion and  power,  then  do  we  become  the  light  of  the  world. 

"2.  'Let  your  light  so  shine.'  We  cannot  dim  the  light 
which  comes  from  Christ,  but  we  can 

"  (a)  Bring  something  between  us  and  Jesus  Christ,  and 
prevent  his  shining  upon  us.  We  can  fail  to  maintain  that 
intimate  union  with  Christ,  who  is  the  source  of  life,  — that 
life  which  is  the  light  of  men. 

"  (b)  We  can  place  something  between  us  and  others,  and 
thus  hinder  our  light  from  shining  before  men.  We  need 
to  let  our  light  shine  out  into  all  the  dark  places.  What 
for? 


GARFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK.  77 

"  (c)  To  induce  men  to  glorify  God  our  Father.  The 
world  demands  a  lived  gospel  as  well  as  a  preached  gospel. 
Christians  need  to  be  living  epistles,  known  and  read  of  all 
men.  A  dying  world  is  calling  for  that  life  which  is  the 
light  of  men." 

President  Garfield's  connection  with  the  min- 
istry has  been  the  theme  of  much  curious  inquiry. 
Hence  it  may  be  well  to  state  some  general  facts 
connected  therewith. 

He  was  never  a  minister  in  the  commonly 
accepted  sense.  The  Disciples'  Church  originated 
in  a  revolt  from  the  old  standards  of  doctrine  and 
polity,  and  thus  gave  more  room  to  personal  force 
and  inspiration  than  the  older  and  more  conserva- 
tive bodies.  "  To  exercise  his  gifts,"  was  each 
brother's  privilege.  Such  exercise  was  directly 
encouraged.  Hence  "  the  liberty  of  prophesy- 
ing "  took  a  wide  range.  What  is  more,  even  the 
brethren  who  were  known  as  preachers  passed 
into  the  ministerial  body,  and  out  of  it,  with  com- 
parative ease.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
Disciples  were  a  young  body  thirty  years  ago,  and 
that  they  had  not  then  attained  to  their  present 
degree  of  order  and  discipline.  Mr.  Garfield  had 
no  other  ordination  than  the  approval  and  encour- 
agement of  the  churches.  Whether  at  any  time 


78       PRESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

he  intended  to  devote  his  life  to  preaching,  must 
perhaps  remain  in  doubt.  If  he  did,  it  must  have 
been  before  he  went  to  college.  The  probability 
is,  that  from  the  time  when  he  began  to  preach  he 
held  it  an  unsettled  question,  until  he  decided  it 
in  the  negative.  To  a  few  persons  in  his  confi- 
dence, he  definitely  announced,  as  early  as  1857  or 
1858,  that  he  should  not  be  a  preacher.  His 
action  was  in  harmony  with  this  announcement. 
While  preaching  week  by  week,  he  was  taking  an 
active  part  in  politics,  and  was  carrying  on  a 
course  of  reading  in  the  law.  That  the  pulpit 
took  a  strong  hold  of  his  mind,  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned. Once  he  was  called  to  the  pulpit  of  what 
is  now  the  Central  Church  of  Cincinnati,  but  de- 
clined. No  doubt  he  would  have  achieved  high 
distinction  as  a  preacher,  but  he  did  not  feel  that 
he  had  the  inward  vocation  for  the  work.  His 
genius  drew  him  to  the  State  by  its  very  bent,  as 
any  one  who  has  followed  his  history  can  see. 
Ceasing  to  preach  at  the  same  time  that  he  ceased 
to  teach  (save  an  occasional  later  discourse),  his 
preaching  had  been  not  only  the  source  of  much 
good  to  others,  but  a  source  of  great  strength  to 
him,  both  as  a  man  and  as  a  public  servant. 

Here  are  presented  all  the  facts    needed    to 


GAEFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK.  79 

answer  the  question  of  Garfield's  having  been  a 
preacher,  that  occupied  so  much  attention  the 
last  Presidential  campaign.  Sometimes  he  was 
made  the  victim  of  violent  attacks ;  sometimes,  of 
ill-considered  defences.  On  the  one  hand  it  was 
said  he  had  "  abandoned  the  ministry ; "  and  on 
the  other  replied,  that  he  did  not  preach  much  or 
long,  that  he  was  only  a  "lay  preacher,"  and 
things  of  that  sort.  The  history  now  given  shows 
that  there  was  no  room  for  the  attack,  and  no 
need  of  the  apology. 

One  incident  of  peculiar  interest  rose  out  of  Mr. 
Garfield's  short  ministry.  He  was  preaching  in 
Chagrin  Falls,  Cuyahoga  County,  where  infidel- 
ity had  long  had  a  strong  grasp.  Spiritualism 
had  also  taken  a  strong  hold  of  thex  community. 
Mr.  William  Denton,  an  itinerant  Spiritualistic 
and  scientific  lecturer  and  debater,  occasionally 
visited  the  village,  in  which  he  gained  a  large  fol- 
lowing. So  he  did  in  other  similar  centres  in  the 
Western  Reserve.  His  particular  effort  was  to 
overthrow  the  Bible.  He  sometimes  followed  the 
line  of  argument  marked  out  by  Paine  one  hun- 
-dred  years  ago,  and  pursued  by  Col.  Ingersoll 
to-day.  But  his  favorite  weapon  was  the  discov- 
eries of  science,  especially  geology.  These  he  so 


80       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

interpreted  as  to  sap  faith  in  the  Mosaic  history. 
More  narrowly,  he  advocated  the  development 
theory.  Mr.  Denton  was  a  man  of  considerable 
discursive  reading :  he  made  pretensions  to  being 
a  practical  geologist,  and  was  a  public  speaker  of 
much  fluency  and  force.  According  to  his  cus- 
tom, he  threw  out  a  challenge  in  Chagrin  Falls, 
to  all  comers,  to  meet  him  in  debate  upon  his 
favorite  ground.  The  Hiram  teacher  and  preach- 
er took  up  the  glove.  At  the  time  he  had  no 
special  knowledge  of  the  subject.  He  had  studied 
geology  at  college,  and  had  perhaps  read  a  few 
books  on  the  science  since.  He  made  his  prepara- 
tion with  his  usual  thoroughness.  Instead  of 
"two  days,"  as  one  historian  has  glibly  said,  he 
devoted  weeks  and  even  months  to  the  study  of 
the  subject.  In  the  holidays  of  1858  the  debate 
came  on.  Mr.  Denton's  friends  expected  an  easy 
victory,  so  did  Mr.  Denton  himself;  and  even 
Mr.  Garfield's  friends  looked  forward  with  much 
fear  and  trembling.  The  roads  and  weather  could 
hardly  have  been  worse.  Nevertheless,  public 
interest  and  even  excitement  ran  high ;  and  the 
largest  audience-room  in  the  town  was  packed 
with  eager  listeners  day  after  day  and  night  after 
night,  for  nearly  a  week.  The  contest  need  not 


GAEFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK.  81 

here  be  followed  point  by  point.  Suffice  it  to 
say,  that  was  before  Mr.  Darwin,  in  "  The  Origin 
of  Species,"  gave  evolution  its  present  shaping ; 
and  the  proposition  in  dispute  stated  the  doctrine 
as  it  had  been  left  by  Lamarck  and  the  author 
of  "The  Vestiges  of  Creation."  Mr.  Garfield's 
strength  and  resources  proved  ample.  He  rose  to 
the  level  of  the  occasion,  and  surpassed  expecta- 
tions. The  Christian  portion  of  the  community 
claimed  a  decided  triumph ;  the  irreligious  either  \ 
admitted  it,  or  called  it  a  "  drawn  battle ;  "  while 
Mr.  Denton  said  that  his  antagonist  was  the  ablest 
and  the  noblest  that  he  had  ever  met.  His  influ- 
ence in  all  the  country  round  about  immediately 
waned,  and  never  regained  its  former  height. 

This  debate  was  coincident  with  a  dawning  of 
popular  interest  in  scientific  subjects  in  Mr.  Gar- 
field's  constituency,  and  in  much  wider  circles. 
Many  important  results  followed  the  debate. 
First,  the  defences  of  the  Christian  faith  were 
strengthened  in  a  considerable  region  of  country. 
In  the  second  place,  it  added  much  to  the  defend- 
er's power  and  influence.  Third,  it  led  at  once  to 
a  great  quickening  of  interest  in  science  among 
Hiram  students.  Fourth,  the  interest  reached  out 
into  the  larger  community  of  which  Hiram  was 


82       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

the  centre ;  and  more  invitations  to  lecture  on 
scientific  topics  than  he  could  possibly  accept 
flowed  in  upon  the  debater. 

At  the  very  time  of  his  return  from  Williams 
College,  President  Garfield  was  drawn  into  poli- 
tics. This  was  due  to  several  causes.  First  may 
be  named  the  bent  of  his  mind  already  mentioned. 
Next  the  inspiring  Presidential  campaign  of  1856. 
Now  the  Republican  party,  born  in  a  day,  first 
came  into  national  prominence.  The  attempt  to 
limit  the  extension  of  slavery  took  full  possession 
of  his  soul,  and  Gen.  Fremont's  candidacy  fired  his 
imagination.  Mr.  Garfield  made  several  speeches 
that  campaign  in  Hiram  and  adjoining  towns. 
The  next  year  he  took  a  more  prominent  part  in 
the  canvass.  Year  by  year,  both  the  number  and 
the  geographical  range  of  his  speeches  increased. 
He  soon  became  a  recognized  political  force  in 
Portage  County.  In  1859  he  was  chosen  State 
Senator  from  the  Portage-Summit  district.  He 
was  now  twenty-eight  years  old.  That  campaign 
he  appeared  in  Akron  on  the  same  platform  with 
Mr.  Chase,  then  candidate  for  Governor;  and  one 
good  judge  said  the  Senatorial  candidate  made  the 
better  speech.  He  served  in  the  Senate  one  term, 
and  at  the  close  entered  a  still  wider  field  of  ac- 


GAEFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK.  83 

tivity  and  influence.  Nothing  more  need  be  said 
of  his  entry  into  politics  than  that  his  rise  was 
rapid,  almost  instantaneous.  As  early  as  1859,  in 
which  campaign  he  took  an  active  part,  he  had  be- 
come a  favorite  speaker  in  a  considerable  section 
of  the  State ;  and  in  the  Senate  he  immediately 
came  to  the  front. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  Hiram  school  received 
only  a  part  of  its  Principal's  energies,  particularly 
after  1859.  Preaching,  lecturing,  politics,  and  his 
law-reading  made  heavy  and  constant  draughts 
upon  him ;  but  he  was  so  full  of  faculties,  of 
strength,  and  resources,  that  he  did  not  seem 
weakened  thereby.  In  1859  or  1860  this  was  a 
common  day's  work  for  him :  a  chapel  lecture  in 
the  morning ;  five  solid  hours  of  teaching,  perhaps 
six;  attention  to  administrative  details;  a  speech 
ten  miles  away  in  the  evening ;  home  to  bed  at 
midnight.  If  the  next  day  was  Sunday,  he  would 
give  two  sermons,  perhaps  fifteen  miles  off.  Of 
course  no  man  who  covers  such  a  field  as  this  can 
be  called  a  specialist.  Still,  he  always  kept  abreast 
of  his  school-work.  The  range  of  his  ability,  and 
the  great  strength  that  he  put  into  whatever  he 
undertook,  attracted  public  attention,  gave  promi- 
nence to  the  school,  and  increased  the  pride  that 
his  pupils  felt  in  him. 


84       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

Only  the  most  vigorous  and  wide-reaching  in 
tellectual  life  could  sustain  such  labors  as  these. 
Garfield's  mind  was  ever  fresh,  his  thoughts  ever 
new.  His  reading  lay,  first,  along  the  lines  of 
his  work,  —  teaching,  lecturing,  preaching,  and 
politics ;  second,  in  1858,  he  entered  his  name  as 
a  student-at-law  with  a  Cleveland  firm.  His  legal 
studies  he  carried  on  at  home,  and  with  such 
thoroughness  and  zeal,  that  he  fitted  for  the  Ohio 
bar  in  the  time  usually  required  by  students  who 
have  nothing  else  on  hand.  But,  third,  he  read 
widely  outside  of  his  work,  both  present  and 
prospective.  He  read  "hard  reading,"  but  fiction 
and  poetry  as  well.  He  naturalized  Tennyson,  of 
whom  he  became  a  profound  student,  in  Hiram. 
In  later  years  he  read  everywhere,  —  on  the  cars, 
in  the  omnibus,  and  after  retiring  at  night.  He 
rarely,  or  never,  went  away  from  home,  even  for 
a  few  hours,  but  he  took  his  book.  He  made 
special  efforts  to  procure  out-of-the-way  reading. 
If  he  was  leaving  Washington  for  a  few  days, 
and  had  nothing  requiring  immediate  attention  on 
hand,  he  wpuld  go  to  the  great  Library  of  Con- 
gress, and  say  to  the  librarian,  "  Mr.  Spofford,  give 
me  something  that  I  don't  know  any  thing  about." 
A  stray  book  coming  to  him  in  this  way  would 


GARFIELD'S  OUTSIDE  WORK.  85 

often  lead  to  a  special  study  of  the  subject.  In 
this  way  he  kept  his  mind  full  and  fresh. 

But,  with  all  his  reading,  he  could  not  have 
done  the  work  that  he  did,  but  for  the  ready  and 
powerful  grasp  with  which  he  took  hold  of  a 
subject,  and  for  the  wondrous  ease  and  quickness 
with  which  he  could  organize  the  material  that  he 
needed.  He  seemed  to  see  at  a  glance  the  rela- 
tions of  things.  In  his  studies  he  strove  to  get 
hold  of  the  underlying  principle,  and  was  never 
satisfied  until  he  could  reduce  facts  to  order. 
Once  he  said,  "  I  could  not  stay  in  politics  unless 
I  found  some  philosophy."  Hence  the  breadth 
of  his  views  of  all  subjects.  Here  is  also  the  expla- 
nation of  Judge  Cooley's  remark  in  his  Ann  Arbor 
oration :  "  He  always  discussed  large  subjects  in  a 
large  way."  His  powers,  the  whole  mass  of  his 
being,  came  to  be  under  the  control  of  his  will. 

General  Garfield  was  always  absorbed  and  happy 
in  his  work,  in  studies,  in  teaching,  in  arms,  in 
legislation.  But  he  ever  looked  back  to  his 
teacher-life  with  peculiar  satisfaction.  Address- 
ing the  National  Association  of  School  Superin- 
tendents, in  1879,  he  said,  — 

"  I  feel  at  home  among  teachers ;  and,  I  may  say,  I  look 
back  with  more  satisfaction  upon  my  work  as  a  teacher  than 


86       PKESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

upon  any  other  work  I  have  done.     It  gives  me  a  pleasant 
home  feeling  to  sit  among  you,  and  revive  old  memories." 

In  the  Hiram  period  he  was  full  of  ambition 
and  strength ;  he  had  plenty  of  work  and  plenty 
of  leisure;  his  friends  and  fellow-workers  were 
congenial ;  and  his  joyous  nature  ran  full  and  free. 
To  all  who  beheld  it,  his  teacher-life  must  remain 
a  thing  of  beauty  and  a  joy  forever.  Again  let 
the  reader  substitute  his  name  for  Miss  Booth's  in 
this  passage :  — 

"  As  the  earlier  teachers  were  called  away  to  other  fields 
of  duty,  their  places  were  supplied  by  selection  from  those 
who  had  been  Eclectic  students;  and  thus  Miss  Booth 
found  herself  associated  with  teachers  whose  culture  she 
had  guided,  and  who  were  attached  to  her  by  the  strongest 
ties  of  friendship.  I  know  how  apt  we  are  to  exaggerate 
the  merits  of  those  we  love ;  but,  making  due  allowance  for 
this  tendency,  as  I  look  back  upon  the  little  circle  of  teachers 
who  labored  here,  under  the  leadership  of  our  honored  and 
venerable  friend  Mr.  Hay  den,  during  the  first  six  years  of 
the  Eclectic,  and  upon  the  younger  group,  associated 
with  me  from  1856  until  the  breaking-out  of  the  war,  I 
think  I  wrong  no  one  of  them  by  saying,  that  for  generous 
friendship  and  united,  earnest  work,  I  have  never  seen  and 
never  expect  to  see  their  like  again.  Enough  new  members 
were  added  to  the  corps  of  teachers  from  year  to  year  to 
keep  alive  the  freshness  of  young  enthusiasm;  and  yet 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIKAM  LIFE.          87 

enough  experience  and  maturity  of  judgment  were  left  to 
hold  the  school  in  a  steady  course  of  prosperity." 

VI.— GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE. 

In  1861  Mr.  Garfield  went  to  the  army,  and  in 
1863  to  Congress.  His  services  as  a  soldier  and 
statesman  do  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  this 
sketch.  But  Hiram  continued  his  Ohio  home 
until  he  removed  to  Mentor  in  1877.  Some  phases 
of  his  later  Hiram  life  must  be  here  described. 

In  November,.  1858,  he  married  Miss  Lucretia 
Rudolph,  whose  mental  gifts,  both  native  and 
acquired,  well  fitted  her  for  his  wife  and  com- 
panion. She  had  been  a  pupil  with  him,  both  in 
Chester  and  in  Hiram,  as  well  as  a  pupil  of  his  in 
Hiram.  Now  she  became  both  his  fellow-student 
and  co-worker.  His  obligations  to  her  in  the 
wifely  relation  he  strongly  and  beautifully  recog- 
nized on  all  fitting  occasions.  Her  great  strength 
of  character,  long  before  known  to  private  friends, 
was  fully  revealed  to  the  world  in  the  long  tra- 
gedy that  closed  at  Elberon,  Sept.  19,  1881.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Garfield's  domestic  life  was  eminently 
happy  and  beautiful.  After  the  war  Grandma 
Garfield,  now  known  so  pleasantly  to  the  world  , 
as  "  the  little  white-haired  mother,"  was  generally 


88      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

a  member  of  the  family.  They  were  a  happy 
trio,  —  a  fond  mother,  a  dutiful  son  and  husband, 
a  faithful  daughter  and  wife.  Both  General  arid 
Mrs.  Garfield  were  always  conspicuous  for  private 
and  domestic  virtues,  "filial  affection,  unbroken 
troth,  and  parental  love." 

At  first  they  did  not  set  up  housekeeping,  but 
boarded.  In  the  month  of  April,  1863,  the  Gen- 
eral—  then  on  a  visit  home  from  the  army  —  pur- 
chased for  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars 
the  only  home  that  they  ever  owned  in  Hiram, — 
the  small  two-story  frame  house  that  so  many 
friends  remember.  This  house  Mrs.  Garfield  re- 
fitted and  enlarged  in  the  fall  of  1863,  at  an 
expense  of  one  thousand  dollars.  Here  they  made 
their  happy  home  until,  in  1872,  the  family  hav- 
ing outgrown  it,  he  sold  it  to  its  present  owner 
and  occupant.  Henceforth  the  Garfields  spent 
more  time  in  Washington ;  but  whenever  in 
Hiram,  —  as  they  always  were  each  summer  until 
the  removal  to  Mentor  in  1877,  —  they  made  their 
home  at  father  Rudolph's.  Their  Hiram  life  was 
perfectly  simple  and  natural,  as  became  their 
estate,  their  nature,  and  their  surroundings.  Save 
the  constantly-used  and  ever-growing  library, 
nothing  in  or  about  General  Garfield's  home  stood 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.          89 

in  contrast  to  the  homes  of  his  neighbors.  His 
house  was  a  place  for  "plain  living  and  high 
thinking."  If  the  old  walls  could  speak,  what 
thoughts  would  they  not  voice,  what  emotions 
utter,  what  joyousness  describe  !  He  never  kept 
a  carriage,  and  save  for  two  short  intervals,  —  one 
just  before  and  one  just  after  the  war, — never  a 
horse  and  buggy.  To  get  to  and  from  the  rail- 
road, he  depended  upon  the  hack,  or  some  neigh- 
bor's vehicle,  or  walked.  It  may  be  added,  that  it 
was  from  the  old  house  that  little  Trot  was  buried 
in  December,  1863,  just  as  her  father  reached 
Hiram  on  his  way  to  Washington  from  the  Army 
of  the  Cumberland ;  and  that  it  was  to  father 
Rudolph's  that  the  body  of  little  Eddie  was 
brought  for  burial  in  the  autumn  of  1876.  The 
two  children  —  the  eldest  and  the  youngest  born 
—  sleep  side  by  side  in  the  Hiram  graveyard. 

Talking  of  walking  to  and  from  the  railroad,  let 
me  say  that  more  of  it  was  done  twenty  years  ago 
than  now.  As  I  write,  there  comes  to  me  a  vision 
of  an  autumn  evening  in  the  year  1858.  Mr. 
Garfield,  Miss  Booth,  Henry  Newcomb,  and  the 
writer  —  all  of  whom,  save  the  last,  have  passed 
over,  and  "joined  the  majority"  —  alighted  from 
the  same  train  at  the  "  Jeddo "  platform.  The 


90       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

two  teachers  had  been  to  Cleveland;  and  Mr. 
Garfield  had  brought  home  with  him  a  copy  of 
"  The  Atlantic  Monthly  "  for  the  current  month. 
Here  let  me  say  that  no  man  or  woman  less  than 
forty  years  old  can  well  appreciate  the  advent  of 
this  magazine.  Such  people  found  "  The  Atlan- 
tic "  when  they  began  to  read.  But  in  1857  — 
"  The  Atlantic's "  natal  year  —  a  great  many 
minds  were  waiting  for  "  something  of  the  kind  ;  " 
and  the  magazine  came  to  them.  Thus  it  came  to 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Garfield,  Miss  Booth,  and  others  in 
the  Hiram  fellowship.  He  thought  Dr.  Holmes 
the  strongest  of  the  early  contributors,  and  much 
appreciated,  both  his  prose  and  his  verse.  He  fol- 
lowed the  successive  numbers  of  "  The  Autocrat " 
with  great  interest.  As  the  quartet  before  men- 
tioned walked  to  Hiram  that  beautiful  autumn 
evening,  he  read  to  them  the  twelfth  number  of 
this  serial.  I  seem  to  hear  again  the  intonations 
and  to  see  the  gestures  with  winch  he  read  the 
professor's  "  Prelude : "  — 

"  J'm  the  fellah  that  tole  one  day 
The  tale  of  the  won  'erf  ul  one-hoss  shay." 

This  little  incident  gives  an  opportunity  to  say 
that  the  scope  of  General  Garfield's  intellectual 


/ 


/ 


v 


yC 


GAEFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LITE.          91 

tastes  and  likes  was  singularly  wide.  He  took 
equal  though  a  very  different  interest  in  Tooke's 
"  History  of  Prices,"  and  in  the  "  Biglow  Papers." 
He  grew  wise  over  the  grave  and  weighty  page 
of  Bacon,  and  laughed  over  "  Pickwick  "  until  it 
seemed  that  his  own  prediction,  "  I  believe  Dick- 
ens will  kill  me  yet,"  would  be  realized.  He 
delighted  in  the  knightly  tales  of  Scott,  and  in 
both  the  tragedy  and  comedy  of  Shakspeare.  He 
was  as  rich  in  humor  as  he  was  strong  in  logic. 
He  abounded  in  delightful  fancies  and  in  pleas- 
ant conceits.  The  election  to  the  Presidency,  in- 
deed, laid  its  hand  heavily  upon  him,  repressing 
somewhat  his  early  spirits  ;  but  in  Hiram  he  was 
full  of  "jest  and  youthful  jollity,"  of  "quips 
and  cranks."  At  the  same  time  he  never  lost 
his  propriety,  or  surrendered  the  dignity  of  his 
carriage.  The  over-grave  might,  indeed,  have 
taken  offence  at  his  mirth  and  flow  of  spirits  ; 
but  he  who  could  "  unbend "  with  a  boy  could 
instantly  rise  to  the  level  of  the  grave  and 
the  serious. 

Few  men  ever  saw  clear  around  General  Gar- 
field,  he  was  so  many-sided.  He  became  the  "  sage 
of  Mentor,"  —  the  man  to  whom  the  people  looked 
for  counsel  and  wisdom  :  but  he  was  much  more 


92      PEESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

than  a  sage.  He  was  full  of  human  nature.  Mr. 
Lowell  read  him  aright  when  he  said  in  Exeter 
Hall,  London,  "  He  was  so  human.'1''  He  could 
ever  give  the  one  touch  of  nature  that  makes 
the  whole  world  kin.  He  had  read  books ;  he 
/  "  talked  like  a  book ; "  but  he  was  not  a  book. 
Men  spoke  admiringly  of  his  great  attainments; 
but  he  was  never  a  recluse,  never  seemed  book- 
ish. He  gathered  the  metal  from  which  he  forged 
his  armor  and  his  weapons  from  all  mines;  but 
they  were  always  forged  in  his  own  fires.  He 
generally  seemed  to  have  abundant  leisure.  His 
delight  in  conversation  was  equalled  only  by  his 
excellence  as  a  converser.  He  was  at  home  to 
all  men,  and  at  home  with  them.  He  would 
leave  on  the  mind  of  the  Montana  stage- 
driver,  on  whose  box  he  rode,  the  impression 
that  he  was  an  extraordinary  man ;  and  he  met 
the  courtly  Sir  Edward  Thornton,  on  the  latter's 
departure  for  England,  with  an  equal  dignity  and 
grace. 

Astonishment  has  often  been  expressed  by  those 
familiar  with  intellectual  work,  that  Represent- 
ative Garfield  performed  such  a  great  amount  of 
work  the  nine  Congresses  that  he  sat  in  the 
House  of  Representatives.  At  the  same  time,  a 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.          93 

fuller  appreciation  of  what  he  did,  which  is  sure 
to  follow  the  gathering-up  of  his  literary  work, 
and  the  publication  of  an  adequate  life,  will  add 
to  this  astonishment.  No  man  in  this  country 
contributed  so  much  that  is  valuable  to  the  public 
discussion  of  serious  questions,  between  1870  and 
1880.  This  was  profoundly  felt  by  the  managers 
of  the  Republican  campaign  last  year.  A  note 
addressed  to  the  Hon.  Edward  McPherson,  secre- 
tary of  the  Republican  Congressional  Committee, 
brought  this  reply  :  — 

"GETTYSBURG,  PENN.,  Oct.  3,  1881. 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  found  the  statement  of  the  issues 
[of  documents]  made  by  the  Republican  Congressional  Com- 
mittee of  1880.  The  total  number  of  copies  issued  by  us 
'was  12,973,000.  Of  this  the  reprint  of  General  Garfield's 
speeches  reached  the  large  aggregate  of  3,881,000  copies,  or 
more  than  one-fourth  of  the  whole.  The  same  proportion, 
no  doubt,  applies  to  the  National  Committee. 

"No  candidate  ever  so  powerfully  impressed  himself 
upon  the  country  as  General  Garfield ;  and  he,  more  truly 
than  any  one  else,  elected  himself.  Usually  candidates  are 
a  burden.  He  was  a  help  almost  to  the  extent  of  carrying 
the  campaign.  This  I  felt  daily  as  the  months  rolled  on. 
"  Respectfully  yours, 

"Eow.  McPflERSON. 
"PRESIDENT  HINSDALE." 


94       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

Here  it  may  be  added,  that  Mr.  McPherson's 
committee  published  fifteen  Garfield  documents ; 
that  one  exceeded  a  circulation  of  half  a  million 
copies,  and  several  others  approached  that  number. 

Now,  the  explanation  of  General  Garfield's 
work,  so  great  and  so  valuable,  lies  in  these  facts, 
—  his  great  abilities,  his  thorough  mental  training 
and  sound  habits  of  study,  his  powerful  physical 
constitution,  his  just  conception  of  public  life  and 
public  duty,  his  noble  ambition  to  fill  out  that 
conception,  and  the  favorable  surroundings  of  his 
Ohio  home.  He  devoted  himself  to  his  proper 
work.  His  comparative  retirement  and  freedom 
from  interruption  gave  him  one  of  the  conditions 
for  that  work  which  he  needed. 

What  is  more,  his  constituency  did  not  greatly 
annoy  him  with  calls  for  offices  or  clamor  for  pat- 
ronage. Much  surprise  has  been  expressed  that  so 
great  a  man  as  General  Garfield  lived  in  so  small 
a  place  as  Hiram.  The  surprise  is  ill-founded.  It 
is  more  than  doubtful  whether  he  ever  could  have 
done  so  much,  had  he  lived  in  a  great  social  and 
business  centre.  Macaulay  expressed  the  opinion 
that  a  great  work  on  political  science,  like  Adam 
Smith's  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  is  more  likely  to 
come  from  a  humble  clergyman  in  the  Hebrides 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIKAM  LIFE.          95 

than  from  an  active  member  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment ;  and  there  was  equally  good  cause  for  look- 
ing to  Hiram  for  a  great  statesman,  rather  than  to 
New  York  or  Philadelphia. 

General  Garfield's  readiness  on  all  occasions  has 
often  been  remarked.  Probably  some  have  attrib- 
uted this  readiness  to  the  inspiration  of  genius. 
The  explanation  lies  partly  in  his  genius,  but  much 
more  in  his  indefatigable  work.  He  treasured  up 
knowledge  of  all  kinds.  "  You  never  know,"  he 
would  say,  "  how  soon  you  will  need  it."  Then  he 
forecasted  occasions,  and  got  ready  to  meet  them. 
One  hot  day  in  July,  1876,  he  brought  to  his 
Washington  house  an  old  copy  of  "  The  Congres- 
sional Globe."  Questioned  he  said,  "  I  have  been 
told  confidentially  that  Mr.  Lamar  is  going  to 
make  a  speech  in  the  House  on  general  politics,  to 
influence  the  Presidential  canvass.  If  he  does,  I 
shall  reply  to  him.  Mr.  Lamar  was  a  member  of 
the  House  before  the  war ;  and  I  am  going  to  read 
some  of  his  old  speeches,  and  get  into  his  mind." 
Mr.  Lamar  made  his  speech  Aug.  2,  and  Mr.  Gar- 
field  replied  the  4th.  Men  expressed  surprise  at 
the  fulness  and  completeness  of  the  reply  delivered 
on  such  short  notice.  But  to  one  knowing  his 
habits  of  mind,  especially  to  the  one  who  had  the 


96       PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

aforesaid  conversation  with  him,  the  whole  matter 
was  as  light  as  day.  His  genius  was  emphatically 
the  genius  of  preparation.  How  apposite  here  is 
this  paragraph  from  his  address  on  "  College  Edu- 
cation : "  — 

"  Men  look  with  admiring  wonder  upon  a  great  intellect- 
ual effort,  like  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne,  and  seem  to  think 
that  it  leaped  into  life  by  the  inspiration  of  the  moment. 
But  if,  by  some  intellectual  chemistry,  we  could  resolve  that 
masterly  speech  into  its  several  elements  of  power,  and  trace 
each  to  its  source,  we  should  find  that  every  constituent  force 
had  been  elaborated  twenty  years  before,  it  may  be  in  some 
hour  of  earnest  intellectual  labor.  Occasion  may  be  the 
bugle-call  that  summons  an  army  to  battle ;  but  the  blast  of 
a  bugle  cannot  ever  make  soldiers,  or  win  victories." 

Mr.  Garfield  excelled  almost  all  men  in  compre- 
hensive generalizations ;  also  in  the  patient,  un- 
tiring labor  with  which  he  would  hunt  down 
special  facts.  Some  loose  leaves  found  the  other 
day  in  an  old  memorandum-book,  probably  not 
opened  before  for  a  dozen  years,  happily  illus- 
trate this  latter  point.  They  will  also  call  atten- 
tion to  a  little  thing  long  since  forgotten. 

Senator  Sumner  published  in  "  The  Atlantic 
Monthly  "  for  December,  1866,  an  article  entitled 
"  Clemency  and  Common  Sense."  Upon  one  fea- 


GAEFIELD'S  LATER  HIBAM  LIFE.          97 

ture  of  this  article  General  Garfield   wrote   this 
criticism,   which    appeared    in    "The  New- York 

Evening  Post :  "  — 

"  In  Senator  Sumner's  very  learned  and  interesting  article 
in  the  December  number  of  '  The  Atlantic  Monthly,'  he  has 
minutely  analyzed  the  Homeric  fable  of  Scylla  and  Charyb- 
dis,  and  has  located  the  Sirens  near  by,  and  made  them  a 
party  to  the  dangers  of,  Scylla. 

"  He  says, '  For  the  fable  Homer  is  our  highest  authority,' 
and  he  represents  the  Sirens  as  playing  their  part  to  tempt 
their  victims.  .  .  .  'Charybdis  was  a  whirlpool  in  which 
ships  were  often  sucked  to  destruction.  Scylla  was  a  rock 
on  which  ships  were  often  dashed  to  pieces.'  '  Ulysses  in  his 
wanderings  encountered  these  terrors ;  but,  by  prudence  and 
the  counsels  of  Circe,  he  was  enabled  to  steer  clear  between 
them,  although  the  Sirens  strove  to  lure  him  onto  the  rock. ' 

"  Again,  after  quoting  from  the  '  Odyssey '  the  descriptions 
of  the  whirlpool  and  the  rock,  the  Senator  says, '  Near  by  were 
the  Sirens,  who  strove  by  their  music  to  draw  the  navigator 
on  to  certain  doom.' 

"He  then  represents  Ulysses  as  stuffing  the  ears  of  his 
companions  with  wax  to  shut  out  the  ravishing  melody  of 
the  Sirens,  causing  himself  to  be  lashed  to  the  mast  like 
another  Farragut,  and  steering  clear  between  Scylla  and 
Charybdis,  beyond  the  Sirens,  '  Till  dying  off  the  distant 
sounds  decay.' 

"  Xow,  the  island,  or  rather  promontory,  of  the  Sirens  is  on 
the  Italian  coast,  more  than  a  hundred  miles  north  of  Scylla 
and  Charybdis.  Surrentum  is  generally  believed  to  have 


98      PRESIDENT   GARFIE-LD    AND   EDUCATION. 

been  their  home,  and  is  set  down  in  Bohn's  '  Classical  Atlas' 
at  40°  38'  north  latitude,  while  Scylla  is  38°  15'. 

"  Homer,  who,  as  the  Senator  says,  '  is  our  highest  author- 
ity' for  this  fable,  does  not  associate  the  Sirens  with  the 
dangers  of  the  narrow  passage. 

"  They  lived  in  a  verdant  meadow  strewn  with  the  bones 
of  victims,  who  had  been  lured  to  the  shore  by  the  irre- 
sistible charm  of  their  music. 

"  Circe  having  described  their  abode,  and  taught  Ulysses 
how  to  escape  them,  says, — 

" '  When  their  companions  shall  have  sailed  beyond  them, 
then  I  cannot  tell  thee  which  will  afterward  be  thy  way,' 
and  then  proceeded  to  point  out  the  dangers  of  Scylla  and 
Charybdis. 

"  Let  us  believe  that  the  honorable  Senator's  mistake  in 
regard  to  the  Sirens  arises  from  the  fact  that  he  has  never 
been  lured  by  their  charms  to  an  intimate  acquaintance." 

The  loose  leaves  mentioned  above  are  Garfield's 
original  draught  of  this  note.  It  may  not  read 
here  just  as  it  does  in  the  "  The  Evening  Post." 

Those  were  grand  years  in  Garfield's  life  that 
lay  between  1865  and  1877.  At  the  first  date  he 
was  well  started  upon  his  great  legislative  career : 
at  the  second,  he  had  not  become  so  absorbed  in 
public  affairs  as  he  afterwards  became.  They 
were  years  of  reading,  study,  thinking,  and  com- 
munion with  friends  and  family.  He  was  happy 


GAKFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.          99 

in  his  family,  in  his  friends,  and  in  his  work.  To 
live  by  his  side  those  years,  to  be  welcome  to  his 
house,  to  walk  with  him  through  field  and  wood, 
to  hear  him  discuss  books,  men,  and  questions, 
with  him  "  to  outwatch  the  Bear,"  —  was  a  privi- 
lege such  as  the  gods  of  high  Olympus  never 
granted  to  their  greatest  favorites. 

General  Garfield  retained  his  Hiram  interest 
and  affection  to  the  last.  This  can  be  shown  by 
short  notices  of  his  relations  to  the  church,  the 
College  Board,  the  students,  and  the  Hiram  fel- 
lowship. 

He  early  became  a  member  of  the  Hiram  church, 
and  never  removed  his  proper  membership  to 
another  congregation,  —  neither  to  Mentor  nor 
Washington.  His  interest  in  both  the  congrega- 
tion and  the  pulpit  continued.  In  the  church  he 
frequently  participated  in  the  social  services. 
The  last  time  that  he  did  so,  he  spoke  feelingly  of 
the  gloom  and  chill  cast  over  life  by  unbelief  in 
the  central  Christian  doctrines.  A  letter  just 
received  speaks  of  another  of  these  occasions:  "A 
little  talk  that  he  gave  one  Sunday  afternoon  near 
twilight,  in  the  blessed  Hiram  church,  has  come 
into  my  mind  again  and  again,  these  last  days. 
It  was  five  or  six  years  ago ;  and  I  cannot  recall 


100      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

what  lie  said,  except  that  he  quoted  these  words 
of  Christ  to  his  disciples,  perhaps  for  a  text :  '  It 
is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away :  for  if  I  go 
not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you ; 
but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  him  to  you.' " 

He  conscientiously  performed  his  duties  as  a 
member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  No  member 
was  more  useful,  or  made  more  sacrifice  to  be 
present  at  the  meetings.  June  7,  1881,  in  a  letter 
to  the  President  of  the  College,  he  wrote :  "  I 
feel  a  sense  of  positive  loss  in  not  being  able 
to  attend  the  commencement  at  Hiram,  but  of 
course  it  is  impossible.  .  .  .  Express  to  the  Board 
my  regret  that  I  am  not  able  to  be  with  them." 
Record  should  also  be  made  of  the  fact  that  he 
always  stood  with  the  most  liberal  in  his  contribu- 
tions to  the  treasury. 

So  long  as  Hiram  was  his  home,  he  gave  the 
students  occasional  lectures ;  and,  even  after  he 
moved  away,  on  his  flying  visits  he  would  visit 
the  chapel,  if  possible,  and  make  a  "talk."  In 
the  spring  of  1871  he  gave  a  course  of  ten  lec- 
tures on  Social  Science.  In  1869  and  1870,  he 
had  made  a  special  study  of  the  census  and  its 
related  subjects,  and  had  attempted  to  get  an 
improved  census  law  enacted.  He  read  widely 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.        101 

the  literature  of  statistics,  English,  French,  and 
Belgian.  His  lectures  were  an  outgrowth  of 
these  studies.  Professor  I.  N.  Demmon,  then  of 
Hiram,  now  of  Michigan  University,  who  heard 
these  lectures,  thus  speaks  of  them  under  date  of 
Oct.  17,  1881 :  — 

"  On  consulting  my  diary  for  that  year,  I  find  that  the 
first  lecture  was  given  on  Friday  afternoon,  May  26.  The 
subject  was  '  The  Methods  of  Thought.'  The  second,  given 
on  the  following  day,  attempted  a  classification  of  the  sci- 
ences. During  the  next  week,  at  least  four  more  lectures 
were  given,  as  follows :  '  Practical  Value  of  Social  Science ; ' 
'Preservation  and  Extension  of  Life;'  'Society  and  Gov- 
ernment, their  Nature  and  Origin;'  'Reign  of  Law.'  I 
took  rough  notes  of  the  lectures,  which  I  have  since  re- 
gretted that  I  did  not  write  out  and  elaborate  at  the  time. 
The  lectures  were  full  of  suggestive  thought  and  happy 
illustration,  and  were  delivered  in  the  General's  engaging 
manner,  greatly  to  the  delight  and  instruction  of  us  all. 
They  were  given  off-hand,  apparently  from  rough  notes.  A 
rational,  and  at  the  same  time  devout,  spirit  ran  through 
them  all." 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  lectures 
flowed  spontaneously  out  of  their  author's  general 
reading  upon  the  subjects  discussed :  he  devoted 
to  them  much  labor  and  time,  —  more,  probably, 


102      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

than  he  ever  gave  to  a  case  in  the  Supreme  Court. 
All  of  which  he  did  on  account  of  his  interest  in 
the  subjects  themselves,  and  his  desire  to  aid  the 
students  and  college. 

Soon  after  President  Garfield's  election  to  the 
Senate  in  the  winter  of  1879-80,  a  letter  of  con- 
gratulation was  sent  to  him  in  the  name  of  the 
faculty  and  students.  The  letter  spoke  of  his 
election,  and  particularly  of  the  honorable  manner 
in  which  it  had  been  accomplished.  Soon  came 
back  this  graceful  reply  :  — 

"  WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  Jan.  28,  1880. 

"PKOF.  G.  H.  COLTON,  LOOTS  HOFFMAN,  AND  C.  P.  WILSON, 
Hiram,  Portage  Co.,  Ohio. 

"  GENTLEMEN,  —  I  owe  you  an  apology  for  so  long  neglect- 
ing to  acknowledge  your  very  kind  letter  of  the  17th  inst. 
I  have  been  so  constantly  engaged  since  it  caine,  that  it  has 
been  really  impossible  to  answer  it  sooner. 

"  I  thank  you  with  all  my  heart  for  the  kind  congratula- 
tions with  which  the  faculty  and  students  of  Hiram  College 
have  honored  me.  So  much  of  my  life  was  identified  with  the 
educational  work  of  Hiram,  that  I  could  not  be  true  to  my- 
self should  I  ever  cease  to  cherish  with  the  utmost  affection, 
not  only  the  memories  of  the  place,  but  its  dearest  interests. 

"  I  concur  with  you  in  esteeming  more  highly  than  the 
office  itself  the  manner  in  which  the  Senatorship  was  con- 
ferred upon  me ;  and  I  may  add  that  I  prize  still  more  highly 


OAKFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.        103 

the  approval  of  thoughtful,  cultivated  men,  and  especially 
those  who  know  me  so  well  as  the  faculty  and  students  of 
Hiram  College.  I  beg  you  to  express  to  them  my  heartfelt 
thanks  for  their  kind  remembrance. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"J.  A.  GARFIELD." 

Of  his  relations  to  the  community,  a  word  suf- 
fices. He  discharged  to  the  full  his  duties  as  a 
citizen.  His  democratic  manner  and  spirit  levelled 
all  barriers  to  approach.  All  his  neighbors  knew 
that  he  was  approachable  and  generous;  and  all 
had  the  most  unbounded  confidence  in  his  probity 
and  honor. 

The  great  day  of  every  year  in  Hiram  is  Com- 
mencement. It  is  a  day  very  like  what  Com- 
mencement was  to  the  smaller  New-England 
colleges  before  the  railroads  so  mixed  up  the  city 
and  the  country.  It  is  a  day  looked  forward  to 
with  great  interest  by  a  large  number  of  persons. 
General  Garfield  always  made  it  a  point  to  attend, 
if  consistent.  As  the  time  drew  near,  the  ques- 
tion, "  Will  Mr.  Garfield  [or,  "  the  General "]  be 
there  ? "  was  often  asked  in  the  regions  round 
about.  It  is,  perhaps,  needless  to  say,  that  to  the 
"  old  students  "  (as  they  are  now  called)  he  was 
always  the  centre  of  interest.  To  Hiram  he  came, 


104      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

June  10,  1880,  two  days  after  his  nomination  at 
Chicago,  partly  to  attend  the  Commencement,  but 
more  to  be  present  at  the  great  re-union  that  is 
held  every  five  years.  How  different  his  coming 
from  that  of  1851 !  Then  he  came  unobserved, 
a  student  poor  and  plain :  now  he  comes  with 
flags,  and  bands  of  music,  powerful  friends  and  a 
huzzaing  multitude,  and  a  troop  of  correspondents 
to  tell  it  all  to  the  world.  At  the  close  of  the 
exercises  he  made  this,  his  last  Commencement 
speech :  — 

"  It  always  has  given  me  pleasure  to  come  here,  and  look 
upon  these  faces.  It  has  always  given  me  new  courage  and 
new  strength.  It  has  brought  back  a  large  share  of  that 
richness  that  belongs  to  those  things  out  of  which  come  the 
joys  of  life.  While  I  have  been  sitting  here  this  afternoon, 
watching  your  faces,  and  listening  to  the  very  interesting 
address  just  delivered,  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  best  thing 
you  have  that  all  men  envy  —  I  mean,  all  men  who  have 
reached  the  meridian  of  life  —  is  perhaps  the  tiling  you 
care  for  least,  and  that  is  your  leisure,  —  the  leisure  you 
have  to  think  in,  and  to  be  let  alone ;  the  leisure  you  have 
to  throw  the  plummet  with  your  hands,  and  sound  the 
depths,  and  find  what  is  below ;  the  leisure  you  have  to  walk 
about  the  towers  of  yourselves,  and  find  how  strong  or  how 
weak  they  are,  and  determine  which  need  building  up,  and 
how  to  shape  them,  that  you  may  be  made  the  final  being 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LITE.        105 

that  you  are  to  be.  Oh,  these  hours  of  building!  If  the 
Superior  Being  of  the  universe  would  look  down  upon  the 
world,  to  find  the  most  interesting  object,  it  would  be 
the  unfinished  and  unformed  character  of  young  men  and 
young  women.  Those  behind  m.e  have  probably,  in  the 
main,  settled  such  questions.  Those  who  have  passed  mid- 
dle manhood  and  middle  womanhood  are  about  what  they 
will  always  be,  and  there  is  little  left  of  interest  or  curiosity 
as  to  their  development ;  but  in  your  young,  unformed  na- 
tures, no  man  knows  the  possibilities  that  lie  treasured  up. 
While  you  are  working  up  those  possibilities  with  that 
splendid  leisure,  you  are  the  most  envied  of  all  classes  of 
men  and  women  in  the  world.  I  congratulate  you  on  your 
leisure.  I  commend  you  to  keep  it  as  your  gold,  as  your 
wealth,  as  your  means,  out  of  which  you  can  demand  all 
possible  treasures  that  God  laid  down  when  he  formed  your 
nature,  and  unveiled  and  developed  the  possibilities  of  your 
future.  This  place  is  too  full  of  memories  for  me  to  trust 
myself  to  speak  more,  and  I  will  not;  but  I  draw  again 
to-day,  as  I  have  drawn  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  evidences 
of  strength  and  affection  from  the  people  who  gather  in  this 
place,  and  I  thank  you  for  the  permission  to  see  you  and 
meet  you  and  greet  you  as  I  have  done  to-day." 1 

1  Soon  after  Garfleld's  graduation,  President  Hopkins 
preached  a  Baccalaureate  Sermon  on  "  Leisure,"  from  the  text, 
"  Gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  be  lost." 
This  sermon,  which  he  either  heard  or  read,  was  a  seed- 
thought  in  Garfield's  mind.  He  struck  the  "  leisure "  chord 
again  in  his  inimitable  Chautauqua  speech  delivered  at  sun-  \ 
rise,  Aug.  9,  1881. 


106      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

The  next  day  he  presided  in  the  Tabernacle, 
and  made  his  last  re-union  speech.  This  has  been 
once  given  in  this  sketch,  and  need  not  be  here 
repeated.  Feb.  4,  1881,  he  made  his  last  visit  to 
Hiram.  He  came  primarily  to  attend  a  funeral ; 
but  he  met  and  greeted  the  faculty  and  students 
in  the  chapel,  as  was  his  wont.  As  noted  down 
by  one  of  the  latter,  these  were  his  last  public 
words  in  that  place :  — 

"  To-day  is  a  sort  of  burial-day  in  many  ways.  I  have 
often  been  in  Hiram,  and  have  often  left  it ;  but,  with  the 
exception  of  when  I  went  to  the  war,  I  have  never  felt- that 
I  was  leaving  it  in  quite  so  definite  a  way  as  I  do  to-day.  It 
was  so  long  a  work-shop,  so  long  a  home,  that  all  absences 
have  been  temporary,  and  involved  always  a  return.  I  can- 
not speak  of  all  the  ties  that  bind  me  to  this  place.  There 
are  other  things  buried  beneath  this  snow  besides  dead 
people.  The  trees,  the  rocks,  the  fences,  and  the  grass  are 
all  reminders  of  things  connected  with  my  Hiram  life. 

"  It  is  a  revival  of  youth  to  me  to  be  in  this  place,  to  see 
its  bright  young  life.  I  see  before  me  just  such  a  set  of 
students  as  I  saw  here  twenty-four,  twenty-six,  yes,  twenty- 
eight  years  ago, — just  as  young,  just  as  bright,  just  as  hope- 
ful of  the  future.  It  is  pleasing  to  know  that  Hiram  life 
is  ever  the  same.  A  few  days  ago  I  saw  a  girl  in  the  full 
bloom  of  early  womanhood,  who  is  the  daughter  of  a 
woman  who  was  my  pupil  here  twenty-four  years  ago.  She 
was  the  picture  of  her  mother,  whom  I  have  never  seen 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.        107 

since,  but  I  am  told  that  she  has  become  a  gray-haired 
matron.  As  the  daughter  stood  before  me,  the  likeness  of 
what  the  mother  was  then,  what  thoughts  and  feelings  came 
over  me  of  the  years  that  are  gone !  There  is  an  idea  of 
immortality  in  this,  —  life  is  reproduced  in  things  that 
follow.  A  fountain  of  perpetual  youth  is  in  this  old  chapel : 
there  are  no  wrinkles  in  its  walls.  It  is  a  very  comforting 
thought,  that  though  the  ancients  sought  the  fountain  of 
perpetual  youth,  and  found  it  not,  it  can  be  found  in  the 
associations  of  a  place  like  this. 

"  It  is  pitiful  that  we  often  do  not  appreciate  good  things 
until  they  are  gone.  Emerson  has  said, '  To-day  is  a  king 
in  disguise.'  He  passes  among  us;  and,  if  we  heed  not,  he 
leaves  us,  and  we  are  none  the  wiser.  Get  acquainted  with 
what  there  is  in  to-day ;  take  what  it  contains,  and  appro- 
priate it  to  yourself.  The  strong  friendships  and  deep 
impressions  that  you  are  forming  now  will  live  in  time  to 
come.  The  other  day  a  man  came  to  me  whom  I  had  known 
here  twenty-five  years  ago,  but  he  was  changed :  he  was  fat 
and  whiskered  and  half  bald ;  and  when  I  took  him  by  the 
hand,  and  called  him  by  name  with  '  W.  D.'for  his  initials, 
he  cried  like  a  man  to  be  remembered.  I  believe  he  is 
richer,  fuller,  more  of  a  man,  for  what  he  gained  here  at 
Hiram.  If  I  thought  the  time  would  ever  come  when  I 
should  live  the  Hiram  life  out  of  me,  I  should  hope  to  die 
just  before  it  came. 

"Never  despise  the  days  of  Hiram  life  and  childhood. 
The  associations  that  you  are  now  forming,  your  lessons, 
your  thoughts,  and  your  deeds  from  day  to  day,  are  what  go 
to  make  up  your  life  here;  and  this  is  the  foundation  of 


108      PBESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

your  after-life.     Be  wise  now ;  and,  when  you  live  over  again 
the  life  you  lived  here,  may  it  be  such  as  you  could  wish  ! 

"  I  cannot  see  what  lies  beyond.  I  may  be  going  on  an 
Arctic  voyage ;  but,  be  that  as  it  may,  I  know  that  years 
ago  I  builded  upon  this  promontory  a  cairn,  from  which, 
wherever  my  wanderings  may  lead  me,  I  can  draw  some 
sustenance  for  life  and  strength.  May  the  time  never  come 
when  I  cannot  find  some  food  for  mind  and  heart  on  Hiram 
Hill  I" 


At  the  close  of  his  remarks  he  greeted  those 
who  were  present,  one  by  one.  Many  of  the  stu- 
dents were  the  children  of  his  old  scholars,  and 
his  greetings  were  often  accompanied  by  pleasant 
reminiscences.  As  he  stepped  into  the  sleigh 
that  stood  at  the  door,  where  years  before  he  had 
watched  his  "  star  in  the  east,"  he  said  to  one  of 
his  early  friends,  "  We  have  come  to  the  parting 
of  the  ways,  but  I  hope  it  will  not  be  for  long." 
These  were  his  last  words  to  her,  for  they  never 
met  again.  Then  he  was  driven  away  from  Hiram 
forever,  over  the  snow  that  covered  so  many  other 
things  than  dead  people.  How  little,  indeed,  did 
he  know  of  the  sea  upon  whose  shore  he  stood ! 
The  inauguration,  the  struggle  for  the  dignity  of 
his  office,  Mrs.  Garfield's  illness,  the  assassin's 
shot,  the  brave  fight  for  life,  his  heroic  and  tender 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.        109 

death,  soon  followed  in  quick  succession.  These 
things  can  only  be  mentioned ;  but  how  fitting  the 
phrase  of  Minister  Lowell  in  Exeter  Hall :  "  In 
the  presence  of  that  death-scene,  so  homely,  so 
human,  so  august  in  its  unostentatious  heroism, 
the  commonplaces  of  ordinary  eulogy  stammer 
with  the  sudden  shame  of  their  own  ineptitude." 


Here  ends  the  story.  Save  in  one  or  two  minor 
instances,  it  has  been  wholly  impersonal,  as  was 
fit.  But,  before  he  lays  down  the  pen  that  falter- 
ingly  has  drawn  this  sketch,  surely  the  writer's 
personality  may  for  one  moment  come  into  view. 

I  have  now  discharged,  as  best  I  could  within 
my  space,  what  seemed  a  sacred  duty,  both  to  the 
dead  and  to  the  living.  I  hope  this  outline  has 
been  so  drawn,  and  so  filled  in  with  the  "little 
history  "  in  which  President  Garfield  always  took 
so  much  interest,  as  to  form  a  sketch  of  his  Hiram 
life  not  altogether  unworthy  of  the  theme.  Gar- 
field  the  student  and  teacher  rises  before  us  vast 
and  mountain-like.  If  the  common  student  or 
teacher  cannot  encompass  the  mountain,  he  can  at 
least  grasp  the  shrubs  that  root  upon  its  sides. 


110      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

My  personal  obligations  to  General  Garfield  are 
the  strongest  possible.  It  was  in  the  winter  of 
1853-54  that  our  acquaintance  began.  But  the 
vision  that  now  rises  before  my  mind  begins  with 
the  autumn  of  1856.  Then  it  was,  that  on  his 
return  to  Hiram,  with  the  honors  of  Williams 
upon  his  head,  and  the  light  of  the  future  in  his 
eye,  he  sought  me  out  in  the  sore  doubts  and 
troubles  of  my  closing  boyhood,  and  drew  me 
closer  to  himself.  Then  began  the  friendship 
that  grew  stronger  and  closer  until  his  untimely 
fall  at  the  post  of  duty.  In  those  twenty-five 
years  I  was  permitted  to  share  much  of  his  life, 
his  work,  his  love.  I  followed  him  as  a  son  his 
father,  though  it  was  with  very  unequal  steps.  In 
all  the  greater  labors,  and  especially  in  the  crises 
of  my  life,  he  endowed  me  with  his  knowledge 
and  his  wisdom.  The  measures  of  instruction, 
sympathy,  and  friendship,  that  he  poured  into  my 
mind  and  heart,  were  not,  indeed,  all  that  he  could 
impart,  but  they  were  all  that  I  could  receive. 
To  testify  to  his  worth  and  greatness  while  he 
lived,  in  evil  as  well  as  in  good  report,  was  always 
a  glad  office ;  as  it  is  to  pay  even  this  poor  tribute 
to  his  memory,  now  that  he  is  no  more. 

Now  that  he  is  no  more  !     Men  tell  me  that  he 


GARFIELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.        Ill 

is  dead.  They  say  he  died  in  the  audience-cham- 
ber of  the  world.  The  funeral-car  that  glided 
past  me  at  Pittsburg  in  the  gray  mist  of  the  morn- 
ing contained,  they  said,  his  coffin.  They  called 
a  hearse  behind  which  I  rode,  his  hearse.  They 
termed  some  words  that  I  uttered  at  an  open 
grave,  a  benediction  at  his  burial.  Are,  then, 
God  and  nature  so  at  strife  ?  Does  nature  indeed 
lend  such  evil  dreams?  There  comes  to  me  a 
passage  that  pleased  him  three  and  twenty  years 
ago.  Dr.  Holmes  speaks  of  the  "  sweet  illusions  " 
that  mingled  with  the  fancies  of  his  youth,  —  illu- 
sions which  he  loved  so  well  that  he  would  not 
outgrow  them. 

"  The  firing  of  the  great  guns  at  the  Navy  Yard,"  he  says, 
"  is  easily  heard  at  the  place  where  I  was  born  and  lived. 
<  There  is  a  ship-of-war  come  in,'  they  used  to  say  when  they 
heard  them.  Of  course  I  supposed  that  such  vessels  came 
in  unexpectedly,  after  indefinite  years  of  absence,  —  sudden- 
ly as  falling  stones ;  and  that  the  great  guns  roared  in  their 
astonishment  and  delight  at  the  sight  of  the  old  war-ship 
splitting  the  bay  with  her  cutwater.  Now,  the  sloop-of-war 
'  The  Wasp,'  Captain  Blakely,  after  gloriously  capturing 
'  The  Reindeer '  and  '  The  Avon,'  had  disappeared  from  the 
face  of  the  ocean,  and  was  supposed  to  be  lost.  But  there 
was  no  proof  of  it;  and,  of  course,  for  a  time  hopes  were 
entertained  that  she  might  be  heard  from.  Long  after  the 


112      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

last  real  chance  had  utterly  vanished,  I  pleased  myself  with 
the  fond  illusion  that  somewhere  on  the  waste  of  waters  she 
was  still  floating ;  and  there  were  years  during  which  I  never 
heard  the  sound  of  the  great  guns  booming  inland  from  the 
Navy  Yard  without  saying  to  myself,  "'The  Wasp"  has 
come ! '  and  almost  thinking  I  could  see  her  as  she  rolled  in, 
crumpling  the  water  before  her,  weather-beaten,  barnacled, 
with  shattered  spars  and  threadbare  canvas,  welcomed  by 
the  shouts  and  tears  of  thousands.  This  was  one  of  those 
dreams  that  I  nursed  and  never  told.  Let  me  make  a  clean 
breast  of  it  now,  and  say  that,  so  late  as  to  have  outgrown 
childhood,  perhaps  to  have  got  far  on  towards  manhood, 
when  the  roar  of  the  cannon  has  struck  suddenly  on  my 
ears,  I  have  started  with  a  thrill  of  vague  expectation  and 
tremulous  delight ;  and  the  long-unspoken  words  have  articu- 
lated themselves  in  the  mind's  dumb  whisper,  ' "  The  Wasp ' 
has  come  I'"1 

Let  no  one  call  me  boyish  if  I  tell  a  like  dream 
that  I  nurse.  It  is  that  my  teacher,  friend,  and 
President  is  not  really  dead,  but  that  he  has  gone 
on  some  distant  journey  from  which  he  will  return 
richer  and  wiser  than  before.  Surely  some  day, 
as  I  sit  musing  in  the  old  college,  or  abstractedly 
pace  the  floor,  there  will  come  without  a  footfall, 
and  then  at  the  door  a  knock,  that  shall  startle 
me  with  a  thrill  of  vague  expectation  and  tremu- 
lous delight,  and  the  long-unspoken  words  shall 

1  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,  p.  239. 


GARFTELD'S  LATER  HIRAM  LIFE.        113 

articulate  themselves  in  the  mind's  dumb  whisper, 
"  Garfield  has  come  !  " 

"  I  cannot  think  he  wished  so  soon  to  die 
With  all  his  senses  full  of  eager  heat, 
And  rosy  years  that  stood  expectant  by 
To  buckle  the  winged  sandals  on  their  feet. 

"  The  shape  erect  is  prone :  forever  stilled 
The  winning  tongue ;  the  forehead's  high-piled  heap, 
A  cairn  which  every  science  helped  to  build, 
Unvalued  will  its  golden  secrets  keep : 
He  knows  at  last  if  Life  or  Death  be  best : 
Wherever  he  be  flown,  whatever  vest 
The  being  hath  put  on  which  lately  here 
So  many-friended  was,  so  full  of  cheer 
To  make  men  feel  the  Seeker's  noble  zest, 
We  have  not  lost  him  all;  he  is  not  gone 
To  the  dumb  herd  of  them  that  wholly  die ; 
The  beauty  of  his  better  self  lives  on 
In  minds  he  touched  with  fire,  in  many  an  eye 
He  trained  to  Truth's  exact  severity : 
He  was  a  Teacher :  why  be  grieved  for  him 
Whose  loving  word  still  stimulates  the  air? 
In  endless  file  shall  loving  scholars  come 
The  glow  of  his  transmitted  touch  to  share, 
And  trace  his  features  with  an  eye  less  dim 
Than  ours  whose  sense  familiar  wont  makes  numb."  * 

1  "Agassiz:"  J.  R.  Lowell. 


114      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 


n. 


ADDRESSES  AT  HIRAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL 
SERVICE. 

Q1UNDAY  afternoon,  Sept.  25,  1881,  while  the 
^-?  remains  of  President  Garfield  lay  in  state  in 
Cleveland,  a  Hiram  College  memorial  service  was 
held  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church.  The 
church  was  crowded ;  and  the  exercises  were 
marked  by  deep  feeling,  as  well  as  great  interest 
and  solemnity.  Isaac  Errett  of  Cincinnati  made 
the  opening  prayer,  and  President  Pendleton  of 
Bethany  College  gave  the  benediction.  The 
regular  choir  of  the  church  discoursed  beautiful 
music.  The  following  are  the  addresses  made,  in 
their  proper  order :  — 

I.— B.   A.   HINSDALE,  PRESIDENT  OF  HIRAM 
COLLEGE. 

BRETHREN  IN  THE  HIRAM  FELLOWSHIP, — 
There  was  never  but  one  man  who  could  fitly  pre- 
side at  a  Hiram  re-union.  And  he  was  the  man 


HIEAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      115 

whom  we  have  gathered,  not  to  honor,  but ,  to  re- 
member. With  what  felicity  did  he  always  open 
the  service !  with  what  aptness  guide  all  our 
thoughts  and  feelings !  Can  you  think  of  Gar- 
field  as  presiding  at  his  own  obsequies,  not  know- 
ing that  they  are  his  own  ?  If  you  can,  please  to 
consider  that  I  have  resigned  the  chair,  and  that 
he  is  present  and  presiding  in  our  midst. 

James  Abram  Garfield :  born  Nov.  19,  1831 ;  a 
student  at  Hiram  in  August,  1851,  at  Williams- 
town  in  1854;  President  of  the  Eclectic  Institute 
in  1857;  an  Ohio  Senator  in  1859;  a  soldier  in 
1861;  elected  a  Representative  in  Congress  in 
1862,  and  re-elected  each  two  years  succeeding 
until  1878 ;  chosen  United-States  Senator  in  Janu- 
ary, 1880;  nominated  by  the  Republican  party 
for  the  Presidency  in  June  of  the  same  year; 
elected  to  that  high  office  in  November  following ; 
inaugurated  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Republic, 
March  4,  1881;  shot  by  the  assassin,  July  2; 
died  at  Elberon,  Sept.  19:  these  dates  mark  the 
salient  points  of  a  career  that,  in  respect  to  high 
character,  noble  achievement,  lofty  promise  not 
yet  fulfilled,  beautiful  romance,  generous  enthu- 
siasm, pure  ambition,  and  a  final  euthanasia,  has 
no  parallel  in  all  the  tides  of  time. 


116      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

Were  I  limited  to  one  phrase  in  which  to 
describe  James  A.  Garfield,  I  should  say,  "  Great- 
ness of  nature."  With  what  wealth  of  noble 
faculties  was  he  endowed !  Close  observation, 
high  analytical  and  generalizing  ability,  solidity 
of  judgment,  depth  and  purity  of  feeling,  strength 
of  will,  power  of  rhetorical  exposition,  artistic 
sense,  poetic  sentiment,  reverence  of  spirit,  and 
noble  courage,  —  these  are  only  a  few  of  his  great 
gifts.  Were  I  allowed  a  second  phrase  of  de- 
scription, I  should  add,  "  Richness  of  culture." 
Fulness  of  knowledge,  breadth  of  attainment, 
discipline  of  all  the  great  faculties  of  the  mind, 
ripeness  of  experience, — these  are  phrases  that 
describe  but  imperfectly  what  study  and  the  fric- 
tion of  life  had  done  for  him.  Greatness  of  nature, 
and  richness  of  culture,  together  fitly  describe  his 
life  and  character.  And  this  is  in  perfect  har- 
mony with  his  own  maxim,  "Every  character  is 
'  the  joint  product  of  nature  and  nurture." 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  this  noble 
product  of  nature  and  nurture  was  his  many- 
sidedness.  Tennyson  says  of  the  Duke  of  Well- 
ington, — 

"He  stood  four-square  to  all  the  winds  that  blew.' 


HIRAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      117 

This  is  a  bold  figure,  and  it  admirably  expresses 
the  poet's  thought.  But  General  Garfield  had 
many  more  sides  than  four.  You  can  hardly  take 
up  a  point  of  observation  where  you  will  not  dis- 
cover something  in  him  both  interesting  and  strik- 
ing. He  seemed  to  face  in  all  directions.  He 
faced  to  law  and  politics,  to  science  and  to  litera- 
ture, to  arms  and  the  camp,  to  religion  and  the 
Christian  ministry,  to  the  Senate  and  the  forum, 
to  the  farm  and  the  arts,  to  the  social  circle  and 
domestic  life,  and  in  as  many  more  directions  as 
the  diamond  from  its  polished  facets  flashes  its 
lustrous  beauty. 

But  we  are  not  come  together  to  remember  the 
late  President  in  all  the  phases  of  his  great  life 
and  character.  To-day  we  leave  the  soldier  to 
soldiers,  the  lawyer  to  lawyers,  the  statesman  to 
statesmen.  Mr.  Garfield  faced  towards  Hiram; 
and  to  us  this  will  always  be  his  most  engaging 
side.  Here  we,  recall  the  sound  scholar,  great 
teacher,  discreet  administrator,  wise  counsellor, 
sure  guide,  faithful  friend,  and  noble  man.  Under 
circumstances  that  make  the  world  weep,  are  we 
gathered  to  hold  a  memorial  service  for  him  whose 
fourfold  connection  with  our  college,  as  pupil, 
teacher,  president,  and  trustee,  has  made  the 


118      PKES1DENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

humble   name    of    Hiram   known    all    over    the 
land. 

Rapid  as  was  General  Garfield's  march  upon 
the  nation,  still  the  public,  as  a  whole,  were  slow  in 
finding  him  out.  They  never  did  fully  find  him 
out  until  his  life  was  ebbing  away  to  the  music 
made  by  the  Atlantic's  sobs.  But  the  students  of 
Hiram  had  discovered  his  greatness  long  before 
the  year  1860.  They  were,  in  fact,  the  original 
discoverers  of  James  A.  Garfield.  Years  ago  a 
Hiram  student  sang  at  one  of  our  re-unions,  — 

"  Right  proud  are  we  the  world  should  know 
As  hero  him  we  long  ago 
Found  truest  helper,  friend." 

Young  Mr.  Garfield  first  came  to  Hiram  in 
August,  1851.  The  next  school  year  he  became 
one  of  the  teachers,  and  continued  such  until 
1854,  when  he  went  to  college.  On  his  gradua- 
tion in  1856,  he  returned  as  teacher,  and  the  next 
year  became  the  Principal.  From  this  time  to 
August,  1861,  when  he  left  his  class-room  for  the 
camp,  he  was  the  head  of  Hiram.  Within  these 
years  lies  the  service  that  we  should  remember. 
I  can  only  say,  in  general,  that  it  was  fully  marked 
by  all  the  great  qualities  of  his  later  life,  —  wealth 


HIEAM  COLLEGE   MEMORIAL   SERVICE.       119 

of  knowledge,  buoyancy  of  spirits,  dignity  of 
carriage,  wisdom  in  counsel,  kindness  and  justice, 
faithfulness  of  friendship.  I  draw  the  outline, 
and  leave  it  for  you  to  fill  in  the  picture. 

Of  my  own  obligations  to  him,  first  as  a  pupil, 
next  as  a  co-teacher,  then  as  friend,  nay,  as  a 
brother,  I  cannot  trust  myself  to  speak.  Only  he 
who  chanted  the  elegy  over  the  slain  Saul,  and 
Jonathan  his  son,  can  voice  my  grief :  "  How  are 
the  mighty  fallen  in  the  midst  of  the  battle  !  O 
Jonathan,  thou  wast  slain  in  thine  high  places ! 
I  am  distressed  for  thee,  my  brother  Jonathan : 
very  pleasant  hast  thou  been  unto  me :  thy  love 
to  me  was  wonderful,  passing  the  love  of  women. 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen,  and  the  weapons  of 
war  perished ! " 

One  of  the  very  grandest  phases  of  this  grand 
man  was  his  great  simplicity  of  character.  This 
he  retained  unsullied  to  the  end.  Nothing  could 
corrode  or  taint  his  native  honest  fibre.  Princi- 
palities and  powers,  dignities  and  dominion,  were 
nothing  to  him  in  comparison  with  the  fellowship 
of  his  early  friends.  His  love  for  the  old  school 
continued  to  the  very  end.  His.  last  visit  was 
made  not  long  before  his  final  departure  for 
Washington.  He  made  one  of  his  beautiful 


120      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

speeches  in  the  chapel.  He  spoke  of  the  memo- 
ries that  lay  under  the  snow ;  said,  never  since  he 
went  to  the  army  had  he  left  Hiram  with  similar 
feelings ;  said  he  was  about  to  sail  out  into  un- 
known, perhaps  Arctic  seas,  but  that  he  felt, 
that,  on  the  Hiram  promontory,  he  had  built  a 
cairn  from  which  he  could  draw  supplies  through- 
out the  voyage.  He  called  for  "  Ho,  Reapers  of 
Life's  Harvest,"  joined  heartily  in  the  song,  shook 
hands  with  all  present,  and  drove  away  home- 
ward. The  last  autograph  letter  that  he  wrote 
me,  in  the  midst  of  the  great  political  tempest 
that  burst  so  soon  after  his  inauguration,  con- 
tained these  words :  — 

"  I  throw  you  a  line  across  the  storm,  to  let  you  know  that 
I  think,  when  I  have  a  moment  between  breaths,  of  the  dear 
old  quiet  and  peace  of  Hiram  and  Mentor." 

How  he  longed  for  this  "  dear  old  quiet  and 
peace  "  in  all  storms,  was  well  known  to  all  his 
closer  friends ;  and  how  he  sighed  for  it  as  he  lay 
upon  his  bed  of  pain  in  the  heats  of  Washington 
and  by  the  shore  of  the  far-resounding  sea,  his- 
tory has  recorded. 

There  is  one  person  living  whom  to-day  we 
must  not  forget.  And  who  is  this?  You  all 


HIRAM   COLLEGE   MEMORIAL   SERVICE.       121 

anticipate  my  answer.  She  is  a  Hiram  student, 
one  of  our  fellowship,  the  lamented  President's 
noble  wife.  Many  of  Hiram's  two  thousand 
daughters  have  done  nobly ;  but  thou,  Lucretia, 
excellest  them  all.  Wheresoever  his  story  shall 
go  in  all  the  world,  there  shall  also  this  that 
you  have  done  be  told  for  a  memorial  of  you.  In 
behalf  of  all  who  are  in  the  Hiram  fellowship, 
I  wish  to  thank  you  for  your  heroic  devotion,  un- 
faltering courage,  and  immortal  hope  in  the  sick- 
chamber  of  your  husband.  It  was  not  for  your- 
self and  your  children  alone  that  you  wrought : 
you  wrought  for  the"  nation,  for  the  world,  and 
for  us.  We  recognize  the  deep  debt  of  obligation 
that  we  can  never  pay. 

But  it  is  all  over.  Black  Care,  that  perched 
like  the  night-raven  in  our  homes  the  evening  of 
July  2,  sits  in  them  still.  April  28,  1865,  I  stood 
with  General  Garfield  in  the  pouring  rain,  on 
Dr.  Robison's  doorsteps  on  Superior  Street,  when 
the  hearse  of  President  Lincoln  passed  by  to  the 
Public  Square.  Yesterday  I  passed  the  same 
place  as  I  followed  Garfield's  hearse  to  the  same 
destination.  To-day  his  remains  lie  where  Lin- 
coln's lay.  And  it  is  left  for  us  to  adjust  our- 
selves to  a  world  that  contains  no  living  Garfield. 


122      PKESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

He  has  left  us  his  life  and  his  spirit.  Storm  and 
war  and  strife  are  all  over,  and  he  has  entered 
upon  a  quiet  and  a  peace  that  neither  Hiram  nor 
Mentor  knew.  He  is  thrice  happy,  and  doubly 
immortal,  —  immortal  in  life  and  immortal  in 
death. 

Let  me  ask,  why  was  all  this  permitted  ?  Why 
was  the  assassin  allowed  to  strike  him  down  ? 
Why  were  not  the  prayers  of  the  people  granted  ? 
Why  did  the  night-raven  never  lift  his  wings,  and 
fly  away?  Why  was  the  Most  High  deaf?  and 
why  did  the  heavens  give  no  sign?  What  a 
strange  providence !  How  can  it  fit  into  any 
plan  of  divine  wisdom  and  love?  Thus  far  I 
have  scarcely  tried  to  answer  these  questions, 
though  they  have  pressed  upon  me  many  an 
hour.  It  is  a  great  test  of  faith  in  God.  But 
Garfield  believed  in  God.  He  thought  that  an 
increasing  purpose  runs  through  the  ages,  and 
comprehends  the  lives  of  men ;  and  I  think  so 
too.  Still,  hitherto  I  have  been  able  to  do  little 
more  than  say,  "  Lord,  I  believe :  help  thou 
mine  unbelief ! "  For  myself,  I  must  leave  the 
problem  to  the  future.  History  will  no  doubt 
discover  and  disclose  what  passes  my  power  to 
comprehend. 


HIRAM   COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      123 

I  have  dwelt  upon  the  dark  side  of  the  great 
tragedy.  True,  there  are  great  elements  of  good 
in  the  story.  These  I  hope  will  be  duly  empha- 
sized, for  we  must  not  dwell  too  much  under  the 
cypress.  In  Garfield's  young  days  at  Hiram, 
when  he  was  full  of  joyous  life,  this  saying  of 
Emerson's  was  a  great  favorite  with  him:  "To- 
day is  a  king  in  disguise.  Strip  off  his  robes, 
and  enjoy  him  while  he  is  here."  And  I  think 
I  hear  him  who  presides  over  us,  in  spirit,  say, 
"  Be  not  so  carried  away  with  grief,  so  paralyzed 
with  sorrow,  so  blind  with  weeping,  that  you  can- 
not discover  the  good  that  is  in  it  all."  Still, 
for  one,  — 

"I  falter  where  I  firmly  trod, 

And  falling  with  my  weight  of  cares 
Upon  the  great  world's  altar-stairs 
That  slope  through  darkness  up  to  God, 

"I  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  grope, 
And  gather  dust  and  chaff,  and  call 
To  what  I  feel  is  Lord  of  all, 
And  faintly  trust  the  larger  hope." 


124      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

II.—  J.   H.   RHODES,  ESQ.,   OF  CLEVELAND. 

To  thousands  of  men  and  women  the  words 
"Garfield  at  Hiram"  bring  swift  and  happy 
visions  of  the  golden  age  the  world  over,  when 
memory  is  not  busy  with  the  dead  past,  but  life 
is  eager,  joyous,  standing  on  tiptoe  to  catch  each 
new,  bright  morning.  Then  surely  it  was  true,  as 
he  often  said,  "  Each  day  is  a  king  in  dis- 
guise." 

It  always  seems  to  me  now  that  from  boyhood 
he  was  almost  conscious  of  his  high  destiny  in 
life.  He  was  born  to  lead  and  command.  He 
captured  all  hearts  as  naturally  as  he  breathed. 
He  could  not  help  winning  them  if  he  would. 

It  is  not  now  the  time  for  critical  analysis  or 
historic  preciseness.  We  see  him  only  through 
the  mist  of  tears.  We  cry  out  in  our  despair, 

like 

"  An  infant  crying  in  the  night, 

An  infant  crying  for  the  light, 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry." 

But  generations  hence  his  memory  and  his  life, 
hallowed  by  the  lapse  of  years,  and  looked  at 
through  a  long  line  of  succeeding  events,  like 
some  grand  mountain-peak  viewed  from  afar,  will 


HIRAM   COLLEGE   MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      125 

not  be  less  grand,  will  rise  into  the  heavens  with 
equal  glory  as  now. 

To  many  who  are  here  to-day,  visions  come 
again  of  Garfield  in  the  class-room  or  the  chapel 
at  Hiram.  They  see  a  fair-faced,  blue-eyed 
young  man,  in  the  robust  vigor  of  early  man- 
hood, overflowing  with  animal  spirits,  and  breezy, 
cheerful  good-nature,  standing  before  a  class,  and 
irradiating  the  room  with  his  grand  enthusiasms 
for  knowledge  and  ideas  which  made  each  pupil 
feel  as  if  he  were  in  an  atmosphere  highly  electri- 
fied, out  of  which  he  passed  feeling  that  life  had 
new  meanings  to  him,  and  longing  for  the  return 
of  the  next  lesson.  The  crayon  often  became  a 
magic  wand  with  which  new  worlds  were  dis- 
closed to  the  young  explorer  in  search  of  new 
continents. 

"  Observe  all  things,"  and  "  Question  all  men," 
were  maxims  that  he  daily  illustrated.  No  man 
was  so  humble,  he  often  remarked,  but  something 
new  can  be  learned  by  talking  with  him.  With 
all  men  he  was,  therefore,  social.  If  he  did  not 
learn  any  thing  from  another,  young  Garfield  had 
already  learned  that  ideas  can  only  be  clearly 
held  when  they  can  be  clearly  clothed  in  words ; 
and,  as  long  as  he  could  find  a  good  listener,  he 


126      PRESIDENT  GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

delighted  to  pour  forth  his  own  thoughts,  thus 
crystallizing  ideas  and  opinions  already  formed. 
Many  a  man  wondered  at  the  wealth  of  conver- 
sation with  which  he  was  flooded.  Many  a  small 
audience  thought  it  strange  he  should  speak  as 
abundantly  and  as  eloquently  to  them  as  if  there 
were  thousands  to  be  moved.  All  men  were  foils 
for  his  own  swift  blades,  and  so  he  grew  daily  in 
strength  and  breadth. 

He  died  young,  but  he  was  born  at  the  right 
time.  His  young  manhood  began  with  the  great 
stir  in  modern  thought  which  had  already  revo- 
lutionized the  world.  The  age  of  invention  and 
discovery  had  just  begun  to  usher  into  our  mod- 
ern life  the  triumphs  of  electricity  and  steam. 
The  ferment  of  scientific  research  had  opened  up 
a  thousand  new  fields  of  inquiry.  The  great  con- 
flict between  old  decays  and  new  creations  in  the 
world  of  politics  was  at  hand.  Literature  had 
just  had  a  new  birth,  and  the  modern  period  of 
books  and  newspapers  had  been  inaugurated.  I 
can  remember  how,  in  the  years  1855-1860,  the 
very  air  seemed  surcharged  with  the  new  life  that 
already  threatened  storms  and  hurricanes.  I 
never  heard  him  wish  that  he  had  been  born  in 
another  age.  He  did  not  sigh  that  his  lot  had 


HIEAM  COLLEGE   MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      127 

not  been  cast  amid  the  stirring  scenes  of  ancient 
Rome  or  modern  .Europe.  He  was  born  in 
America,  and  for  America;  and  he  lived  long 
enough  to  see  the  sun  of  the  modern  life  and 
thought  full-orbed  and  high  advanced  in  the  day. 
He  went  away  from  Hiram  at  twenty-three  to 
Williainstown,  to  return  in  the  fall  of  1856  with 
the  baptism  of  fire  from  that  new  heaven  on  his 
heart  and  head.  For  two  years  after  his  gradua- 
tion at  Williams,  we  roomed  together  at  Hiram. 
The  old  office  in  "  the  Orchard  "  is  more  hallowed 
to  me  by  that  two  years  of  companionship  than 
any  other  temple  made  by  human  hands.  It  was 
both  an  education  and  an  inspiration  to  hear  him 
at  this  period. 

It  was  after  his  return  from  Williams  College 
that  he  began  to  preach.  Preaching  was  a  vent 
for  the  overflow  of  his  energies  and  activity.  In 
preaching  he  had  a  greater  range  of  thought  than 
in  the  schoolroom.  The  effect  upon  him  of  two 
years  at  the  feet  of  that  great  teacher,  Mark 
Hopkins,  was  very  marked.  His  thought  ranged 
through  wider  circles.  Whilst  the  dogmas  of  the 
church  at  Williamstowu  did  not  seem  to  have 
attached  themselves  strongly,  the  philosophic  and 
metaphysical  methods  of  President  Hopkins  be- 


128      PRESIDENT    GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

came  a  part  of  his  own  methods.  The  result  of 
this  was,  that  his  preaching  had  a  new  charm  for 
the  people  who  heard  him. 

It  was  during  the  years  that  followed  his  return 
from  Williamstown  that  he  found  so  much  inspira- 
tion and  strength  from  companionship  with  that 
remarkable  woman,  Almeda  A.  Booth,  whose  in- 
tellectual grasp,  and  range  of  thought,  were  only 
second  in  Hiram  to  his  own.  He  owed  much  to 
her;  and  he  has  made  public  acknowledgment  in 
a  beautiful  tribute  to  that  woman,  whom  he  com- 
pared to  Margaret  Fuller. 

Whilst  teaching  at  Hiram,  and  preaching  in  va- 
rious places  in  Northern  Ohio,  his  mind  had  turned 
to  the  law  as  a  life  profession ;  and  among  the 
legacies  I  have  of  this  period  are  synopses  made 
by  us  of  the  first  two  volumes  of  Bouvier's  "  Insti- 
tutes." The  law  in  its  great  principles,  its  broad 
generalizations,  its  sacred  regard  for  life  and  prop- 
erty, its  conservative  influence  and  power  in  main- 
taining order  and  peace  in  society,  had  a  great 
charm  for  his  mind ;  and  I  distinctly  remember 
that  he  would  synopsize  the  "  Institutes  "  so  thor- 
oughly as  to  cover  every  doctrine  laid  down.  In 
subsequent  years  he  achieved  distinction  in  the 
law.  But  politics,  in  the  higher  and  almost  for- 


HIKAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      129 

gotten  meaning  of  the  word,  had  become  a  subject 
of  great  interest  to  him.  The  great  struggle  in 
the  land,  which  ended  in  the  downfall  of  Ameri- 
can slavery,  had  already  begun.  He  was  intensely 
absorbed  in  this  great  controversy,  and  soon  en- 
tered as  State  Senator  upon  that  public  career 
with  which  the  world  is  so  familiar.  Into  this  he 
poured  his  energies,  as  he  had  formerly  into 
teaching  and  preaching.  Here,  too,  in  Hiram 
began  his  devotion  to  the  little  woman  whose 
name  is  revered  in  every  home  in  the  civilized 
world.  Their  acquaintance  began  a  few  years 
earlier  at  Chester.  Writing  to  me  in  1871,  in  the 
midst  of  his  public  life,  and  nearly  thirteen  years 
after  his  marriage,  he  said,  "  There  is  not  a  day 
when  I  do  not  inly  fear  such  completeness  will 
not  be  allowed  to  last  long  on  this  earth."  Verily, 
she  was  "the  rainbow  on  his  storm  of  life,  the 
anchor  on  its  sea."  His  mind  was  imaginative, 
and  his  temper  poetical.  The  fresh  beauties  of 
"In  Memoriam"  were  his  delight;  and  thousands 
of  times  did  I  hear  him  recite,  in  those  early  days, 
the  passage  beginning,  — 

"  The  tide  flows  down,  the  wave  again 
Is  vocal  in  its  wooded  walls : 
My  deeper  sorrow  also  falls, 
And  I  can  speak  a  little  then." 


130      PBESTDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

The  Cuyahoga  River,  above  the  Rapids,  will 
forever  be  associated  with  him  in  my  mind :  there 
once  we  stopped  our  carriage  on  the  old  bridge, 
and  looked  up  the  stream,  and  saw  in  the  tall 
trees  on  either  side  what  Tennyson  means  by 
"  wooded  walls." 

It  is  hard  to  find  any  reconciliation  to  the  fact 
that  he  is  dead,  and  that  his  bodily  form  will  be 
visible  on  earth  no  more.  It  may  be  that  his  out- 
ward frame  will  be  resolved  again  to  dust,  and 
become,  in  the  long  processes  of  Nature,  flowers 
and  fruit,  cloud  or  frost ;  but  I  never  can  conceive 
of  him  as  dead.  I  do  not  believe  he  is  dead. 
Death  has  no  definition  or  limitations  which  can 
include  so  great  a  soul.  Immortality  was  no  myth 
with  him.  His  voice,  I  think,  is  still  heard  to-day, 
in  this  beautiful  poem,  "  After  Death  in  Arabia," 
by  Edwin  Arnold,  which,  with  a  slight  paraphrase, 
I  will  read :  — 

"  He  who  died  at  Elberon  sends 
This  to  comfort  all  his  friends. 

«  Faithful  friends !     It  lies,  I  know, 
Pale  and  white  and  cold  as  snow ; 
And  ye  say,  '  Our  Garfield's  dead  I ' 
Weeping  at  the  feet  and  head, 


HIRAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      131 

I  can  see  your  falling  tears, 
I  can  hear  your  sighs  and  prayers  ; 
Yet  I  smile,  and  whisper  this,  — 
'  /  am  not  the  thing  you  kiss  ; 
Cease  your  tears,  and  let  it  lie ; 
It  was  mine,  it  is  not  I.' 

"  Sweet  friends !  what  the  women  lave, 
For  its  last  bed  of  the  grave, 
Is  but  a  hut  which  I  am  quitting, 
Is  a  garment  no  more  fitting, 
Is  a  cage  from  which,  at  last, 
Like  a  hawk  my  soul  hath  passed. 
Love  the  inmate,  not  the  room,  — 
The  wearer,  not  the  garb,  —  the  plume 
Of  the  falcon,  not  the  bars 
Which  kept  him  from  those  splendid  stars. 

"  Loving  friends !     Be  wise  and  dry 
Straightway  every  weeping  eye,  — 
What  ye  lift  upon  the  bier 
Is  not  worth  a  wistful  tear. 
"Tis  an  empty  sea-shell,  —  one 
Out  of  which  the  pearl  has  gone ; 
The  shell  is  broken,  —  it  lies  there ; 
The  pearl,  the  all,  the  soul,  is  here. 
'Tis  an  earthen  jar,  whose  lid 
Allah  sealed,  the  while  it  hid 
That  treasure  of  his  treasury, 
A  mind  that  loved  him ;  let  it  lie  1 


132      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

Let  the  shard  be  earth's  once  more, 
Since  the  gold  shines  in  his  store. 

"  Allah  glorious  1     Allah  good ! 
Now  thy  world  is  understood ; 
Now  the  long,  long  wonder  ends ; 
Yet  ye  weep,  my  erring  friends, 
While  the  man  whom  ye  call  dead, 
In  unspoken  bliss,  instead, 
Lives  and  loves  you ;  lost,  'tis  true, 
By  such  light  as  shines  for  you ; 
But  in  the  light  ye  cannot  see 
Of  unf ulfilled  felicity,  — 
In  enlarging  paradise, 
Lives  a  life  that  never  dies. 

"  Farewell,  friends  1    Yet  not  farewell ; 
Where  I  am,  ye,  too,  shall  dwell. 
I  am  gone  before  your  face, 
A  moment's  time,  a  little  space. 
When  ye  come  where  I  have  stepped 
Ye  will  wonder  why  ye  wept ; 
Ye  will  know,  by  wise  love  taught, 
That  here  is  all,  and  there  is  naught. 
Weep  awhile,  if  ye  are  fain,  — 
Sunshine  still  must  follow  rain ; 
Only  not  at  death,  —  for  death, 
Now  I  know,  is  that  first  breath 
Which  our  souls  draw  when  we  enter 
Life,  which  is  of  all  life  centre. 


HIKAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      133 

"  Be  ye  certain  all  seems  love, 
Viewed  from  Allah's  throne  above ; 
Be  ye  stout  of  heart,  and  come 
Bravely  onward  to  your  home ! 
La  Allah  ilia  Allah!  yea! 
Thou  love  divine  I     Thou  love  alway ! 

"  He  that  died  at  Elberon  gave 
This  to  those  who  made  his  grave." 

ILL  —  HON.   C.  B.  LOCKWOOD  OF  CLEVELAND. 

I  have  always  thought  that  General  Garfield 
was  greater  than  any  of  his  works,  wiser  than  any 
of  his  words;  and  I  think  this  is  the  general 
impression  of  all  those  who  knew  him  well. 

I  remember,  in  his  early  manhood,  his  coming 
into  the  pulpit  one  morning,  and  relating  this  cir- 
cumstance :  He  said  that  as  he  walked  to  church 
he  met  a  boy  by  the  way,  who  called  him,  and 
said,  "  Mr.  Garfield,  explain  to  me  why  this  thistle- 
seed  is  covered  with  down.  You  see  that  it  is 
just  fitted  to  be  blown  by  the  winds  of  heaven,  to 
be  scattered  broadly  over  the  earth,  and  to  do 
great  harm.  Why  is  it  so  ? ""  He  commenced 
with  that  narration  a  sermon  that  I  shall  never 
forget ;  and  I  will  relate  its  salient  points,  because 
I  believe  they  were  the  groundwork  of  all  that 


134      PBESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

he  was  in  life.  General  Garfield,  more  than  any 
other  man  that  I  ever  knew,  believed  in  God. 
His  belief  was  most  implicit.  Not  always  in  the 
God  of  tradition,  but  in  the  God  who  is  the  Father 
of  this  race  of  ours.  His  reply  to  the  young  man 
was,  that  the  earth  was  cursed  for  our  sake  ;  and 
his  only  explanation  was,  that  this  was  a  part  of 
the  curse.  He  said  the  fall  made  it  absolutely 
necessary,  if  we  would  be  any  thing  in  the  world, 
that  we  should  be  men  of  business.  I  remember, 
and  I  shall  never  forget,  the  wonderful  picture  he 
drew  of  the  providence  of  God  in  the  world.  He 
said,  "  The  time  .will  come  when  this  race  of  ours 
shall  be  relieved  from  the  burdens  that  now  seem 
to  bear  it  downward  ;  and  that  tune  will  come  just 
as  soon  as  we  are  fitted  for  it.  The  great  Father 
waits  and  longs  to  give  us  leisure  ;  but  in  his  great 
love  for  us,  and  in  his  great  wisdom,  he  is  com- 
pelled to  hold  us  to  this  work  —  to  this  drudgery 
—  day  by  day.  This  is  because  in  his  love  he  is 
determined  to  make  the  most  of  us."  He  said, 
further,  that  in  his  view  the  knowledge  and  use  of 
the  great  powers  of  nature  were  only  withheld 
from  us  because  it  was  unsafe  to  put  them  in  our 
hands.  "  Ah  !  "  he  said,  "  controlled  by  passion, 
see  how  unsafe  it  would  be."  But  he  said  further, 


HIKAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      135 

"  Watch  it,  if  you  will.  The  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion and  Christianity,  the  labor-saving  machines 
that  are  being  invented,  shall  go  on  step  by  step. 
Measured  by  our  ability  to  use  the  new  powers, 
the  revelation  of  them  shall  come  to  us.  Oh ! " 
he  said,  "I  look  forward  to  the  time  when  the 
promised  millennium  shall  come  to  us;  and  it 
seems  to  me  this  is  the  direction  in  which  it  is  to 
come.  It  is  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  civilization ; 
and  so  fast  as  we  are  prepared  and  fitted  to  take 
these  powers,  and  use  them  for  the  glory  of  God 
and  men,  they  will  be  given  to  us."  I  have  often 
said  to  myself,  as  this  wonderful  knowledge  was 
coming  to  us,  the  knowledge  of  these  inventions 
and  labor-saving  machines  that  has  come  in  the 
past  few  years,  "Is  it  a  measure  of  our  growth 
in  purity?"  If  the  theory  that  he  then  an- 
nounced, nearly  twenty-five  years  ago,  be  true, 
then  surely  it  must  be  •  evidence  of  some  growth 
toward  safety,  at  least,  to  have  these  things  within 
our  power.  General  Garfield  recognized  in  all  the 
movements  of  earth  this  Father,  God.  He  felt 
that  this  nation  —  and  this  accounts  for  his  won- 
derful love  for  it,  and  his  willingness  to  make 
great  sacrifices  for  it  —  was  a  nation  through 
which  was  to  be  organized  into  law  and  into  insti- 


136      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

tutions  the  will  of  that  Father,  —  the  divine  prin- 
ciples which  were  to  make  for  the  happiness  of  our 
race  in  the  future.  It  is  only  a  few  days  since  I 
heard  him  discoursing  on  this  subject ;  and  he  said 
this  about  it:  "The  time  is  very  near  at  hand 
when  this  nation  shall  be  the  power  in  all  the 
world  that  shall  say,  '  No  more  war ; '  when  its 
voice  will  be  heard  in  favor  of  peace,  and  when 
no  civilized  government  in  all  this  world  will  dare 
to  provoke  a  war  against  the  wishes,  the  advice, 
and  the  counsel  of  this  great  land  of  ours."  He 
looked  forward,  and  he  thought  he  saw  in  its 
movements  that  it  was  to  be  the  instrumentality 
of  great  good  in  the  world  :  and  when  he  left  the 
pulpit,  when  he  went  into  the  field,  wherever  he 
went,  he  felt  that  he  was  doing  this  great  work,  — 
that  he  was  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  that 
God,  who,  by  some  means,  communicated  still  with 
all  those  who  sought  to  do  his  will.  He  struggled 
to  open  the  avenues,  that  that  influence  might 
come  in,  and  make  him  a  manly,  powerful  man, 
that  he  might  be  of  use  to  his  time.  He  said  to 
me  the  night  after  the  election,  nearly  at  the  break 
of  day,  i;  This  has  been  to  me  a  strange  scene. 
I  have  passed  through  it,  with  the  excitement  of 
all  the  people  and  of  all  my  friends ;  and  I  have 


HIEAM  COLLEGE   MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      137 

lain  down  upon  my  pillow  at  night  without  an 
anxiety.  I  could  not  have  believed  it  a  few  years 
since,  but  I  have  passed  through  it  all  without  an 
anxious  thought." 

I  said,  "  General,  that  illustrates  your  faith  in 
God."  —  "Ah !  "  he  said,  "  I  was  sure  that  the  best 
would  be  true,  and,  if  the  highest  was  to  be  sub- 
served, success  would  be  upon  our  side ;  if  not, 
upon  the  other :  and  I  have  been  literally  without 
anxiety." 

Oh !  my  dear  friends,  if  there  is  one  thought 
that  I  would  leave  with  you  it  is  this  one ;  and  I 
think  his  view  of  life  would  include  all  that  we 
mourn  to-day.  I  think,  if  his  voice  could  be 
heard,  he  would  say  to  us,  "  Be  not  anxious.  God 
reigns.  He  is  infinite  in  his  wisdom  and  his  love." 
And  he  would  thank  God  for  his  power  and  his 
willingness  to  take  control  of  and  so  manage  the 
great  affairs  of  this  nation  and  of  the  race  that 
the  highest  good  should  be  accomplished.  I  think 
that  this  is  the  secret  of  the  great  life  of  General 
Garfield, — that  which  brought  him  a  peace  amid 
all  the  struggles  of  life,  that  flowed  like  a  river. 


138      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

IV.—  PROFESSOR  C.  D.   WILBUR,  WILBUR,  NEB. 

I  am  mindful  that  my  time  is  necessarily  short, 
and  have  only  one  idea  to  present  in  behalf  of 
our  lamented  friend.  It  is  this:  that,  in  all  the 
story  of  my  long  intercourse  and  friendship  with 
him,  there  was  one  principle  at  the  foundation  of 
his  movements,  and  that  was  his  love  of  duty.  I 
noticed,  that,  in  the  references  made  to  him  by 
those  who  belong  to  the  Hiram  alumni,  his  labors 
after  he  came  to  Hiram  from  Williams  College 
were  eloquently  mentioned.  But  let  me  tell  you 
all,  that  there  was  a  time  when  he  was  somewhat 
tempted  not  to  come  back  to  Hiram;  and  the 
temptation  came  to  him  in  the  shape  of  an  offer 
of  a  twenty-five-hundred-dollar  salary  to  go  and 
teach  school  somewhere  else.  I  remember  how 
he  discussed  that  with  himself;  he  and  I  being  in 
the  same  room,  No.  12,  Old  South  College.  He 
said,  "  They  want  me  back  at  Hiram  :  they  cannot 
pay  me  much,  but  I  ought  to  go  there."  He  fol- 
lowed the  word  ought;  and  thither  he  bent  his 
willing  footsteps,  and  did  all  that  work.  It  was 
simply  his  love  of  duty ;  and,  wherever  you  find 
him,  you  find  him  acting  up  to  that  standard. 

In  it  will  be  found  that  courage  which  made 


HIBAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      139 

him  do  or  dare.  We  were  both  co-workers  and 
teachers  in  Hiram  more  than  twenty-five  years 
ago ;  and  this  was  his  thought  then  :  "  I  can,"  said 
he^  "  smell  the  coming  battle  afar  off.  There  is  a 
great  amount  of  work  to  do  in  this  world,  and  I 
must  get  ready  for  it."  How  this  came  to  him, 
no  matter.  It  was  probably  through  the  wonder- 
ful impressiveness  that  separated  him  from  all 
the  social  world  around.  "  And  where  shall  I  go 
to  get  ready  ?  "  To  use  his  own  expression,  "  I 
want  to  go  where  I  can  get  the  irons  forged  for 
the  conflict ;  and  where  shall  I  go  ?  "  So  we  made 
a  careful  survey  of  all  the  colleges  in  the  land. 
We  wrote  letters  to  all  the  presidents  of  Eastern 
colleges.  "  I  turn  my  face  toward  the  East,"  he 
said,  "because  there  is  the  accumulation  of  vast 
libraries,  science,  history,  veteran  professors  who 
have  grown  gray  in  teaching ;  and  I  would  go  and 
counsel  with  them."  There  came  a  letter  from 
that  wonderful  man,  that  sage,  teacher,  and  coun- 
sellor, Mark  Hopkins ;  and  the  statement  in  the 
letter,  "  If  you  come  to  us,  we  will  do  you  all  the 
good  we  can,"  led  him  there ;  and  he  always  re- 
garded it  as  the  wisest  step  in  his  intellectual  life, 
that  he  did  so.  He  preceded  me  there  by  three 
months,  and  prepared  a  room,  and  got  every  thing 


140      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

ready.  Having  wrought  together  in  Hiram,  we 
worked  together,  studied  together,  and  roomed 
together,  in  old  Williams. 

He  very  soon  cleared  the  amphitheatre,  laid  out 
his  work,  and  declared  his  purposes.  "  Here  is 
this  vast  library  of  so  many  thousand  volumes :  I 
must  know  what  it  contains.  Here  is  this  realm 
of  study  in  history  and  science :  I  must  go 
through  this,  —  I  must  know  about  it."  I  want 
to  say  to  you  that  he  did  not  seem  to  have  one 
leisure  hour  there.  It  was  work,  work,  work, 
early  and  late ;  and  one  condition  of  his  great 
success  was  his  great  physical  endurance  to  go 
through  it  all.  I  want  to  say  to  you,  that  at 
Hiram  every  one  seemed  to  love  one  another, 
that  it  was  a  school  of  brotherly  love.  I  have 
walked  in  it  all  the  days  since  I  was  there, 
although  my  lot  has  been  cast  far  beyond.  But 
when  he  went  to  Williams  College  he  found  an 
atmosphere  essentially  different.  If  he  stood  or 
fell,  he  would  stand  or  fall  on  his  own  merits. 
There  was  no  favoritism.  When  we  from  Ohio 
went  there,  we  went  from  the  West,  —  the  wilder- 
ness of  the  West,  although  it  was  Ohio.  It  was 
almost  a  barbarous  West. 

We  found  that  we  were  in  a  focus  of  not  un- 


HIRAM   COLLEGE  MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      141 

friendly,  but  unrelenting,  criticism.  If  we  could 
not  stand  the  test,  we  could  not  pass.  So  Gar- 
field  had  to  meet  this  test ;  and  let  me  say  that  in 
six  months,  although  the  criticism  was  formidable, 
he  had  broken  down  all  the  college  walls  so  com- 
pletely, that,  though  every  class  seemed  to  be 
bound  by  its  traditions  and  its  peculiar  style  of 
selfishness,  all  seemed  to  be  laid  low,  and  he  was 
one  with  all  the  college,  and  the  hero  of  all. 
From  this  you  may  know  the  style  of  the  man 
and  his  heart :  speaking  kind  words,  doing  all 
those  things  that  were  just  right,  remembering 
the  Golden  Rule,  and  in  every  intellectual  contest 
coming  off  the  victor ;  and  this  he  did  by  the 
hardest  study.  He  never  chose  or  sought  for  a 
college  honor  in  his  life :  they  all  came  to  him 
from  his  fellows  without  his  solicitation.  I  have 
watched  his  career  from  that  day  until  this,  and  I 
know  that  never  did  he  seek  an  honor,  or  an 
office,  in  his  life ;  and  yet,  when  they  came  to 
him,  he  wrought  so  faithfully  and  so  well,  that  he 
dignified  and  honored  the  place  he  occupied. 
And  as  the  days  go  on,  in  the  very  light  of  this 
great  fact  we  shall  require  of  the  occupant  of  the 
great  office  of  President  of  the  United  States, 
hereafter,  higher  qualifications  than  we  have  ever 


142      PKESLDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

demanded  before,  just  because  this  worthy  man 
has  occupied  and  honored  it,  and  made  ,it  sacred 
by  his  presence. 

Our  college  life  was  of  this  sort.  It  was  con- 
tinual work.  Garfield  used  to  say,  "I  must  so 
comprehend  all  these  studies  that  I  can  analyze 
them  at  night,  and  put  them  in  shape."  And  so 
he  did.  While  he  gathered  in  those  rich  harvests 
from  those  grand  old  men  who  were  teachers, 
every  day  or  every  night  before  midnight  saw  the 
postings  of  them,  which  you  will  find  among  his 
papers  now.  He  put  them  in  that  finished  shape, 
so  that  any  hour  he  could  bring  them  to  his  hand, 
and  use  them.  He  used  to  say  to  me  that  he 
wrote  down  these  thoughts  at  the  time  so  that 
they  would  be  complete;  for,  he  said,  "There 
come  to  every  one  at  times  expressions  that  he 
will  forget,  and  never  have,  unless  they  are  treas- 
ured at  the  time."  So  he  acted,  so  he  wrought, 
and  so  he  managed  to  accumulate  those  vast  pos- 
sessions that  are  the  wonderment  and  the  marvel 
of  his  friends  to-day. 

I  will  close  by  detailing  an  incident  of  our  inte- 
rior room-life.  Every  thing  was  in  perfect  order ; 
and  when  the  sunset  came,  there  came  with  it  the 
oft-repeated,  never-forgotten  circumstance.  It  was 


HIRAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      143 

an  hour  and  a  moment  that  was  deemed  by  him 
sacred  to  his  mother.  It  seemed  to  be  in  accord- 
ance with  a  promise :  "  Whenever  the  sun  is  set- 
ting, read  in  the  Bible,  for  I  will  read  with  you 
then."  That  was  his  mother's  word  to  him,  and 
he  never  forgot  it.  No  matter  what  the  press  was, 
he  always  had  time  for  that.  We  all  know,  that, 
when  he  went  up  Greylock,  he  drew  forth  the 
Testament  in  the  sunset  upon  the  mountain,  be- 
fore his  companions,  and  said,  "  Such  is  my  habit." 
But  down  in  the  old  room  at  the  college  it  was  an 
every-evening  occurrence. 

Sometimes  we  would  post  the  books ;  that  is  to 
say,  repeat  to  one  another  passages,  not  of  Scrip- 
ture, but  of  philosophy  or  of  poetry,  —  Shake- 
speare or  any  other  author,  according  to  our 
liking.  Sometimes  hours  were  delightfully  passed 
in  that  way.  It  was  discipline,  at  the  same  time. 
His  memory  was  prodigious, — far  beyond  mine. 
I  had  hardly  thought  of  it  until  one  day  last  fall, 
when  I  was  visiting  him  at  his  own  home,  he  said 
to  me,  "  Can  you  repeat  to  me  that  little  poem 
that  was  the  epitome  of  life?  It  was  done  up, 
perhaps,  in  five  stanzas;  but  the  roll  of  it,  the 
style  of  it,  the  measure  of  it,  has  kept  with  me  all 
the  days  since."  It  was  a  short  view  of  life.  He 


144      PKESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

had  some  such  view  as  Lincoln  had  when  he  would 
insist  on  the  reading  of  that  poem,  "  Oh !  why 
should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud?"  But  this 
poem  was  more  condensed,  more  to  the  point,  more 
practical,  as  Garfield  himself  was.  So  I  tried  to 
remember  and  repeat  it  to  him.  It  fits  so  well 
here,  seeing  that  now  he  lies  yonder,  that  I  will 
venture  to  give  it,  and,  with  it,  close.  It  is  by 
Barry  Cornwall :  — 

"  Day  dawned.     Within  a  curtained  room, 
Filled  to  faintness  with  perfume, 
A  lady  lay  at  point  of  doom. 

Day  closed.     A  child  had  seen  the  light ; 
But  for  the  lady,  fair  and  bright, 
She  rested  in  undreaming  night. 

Spring  rose.     The  lady's  grave  was  green ; 
And  near  it  oftentimes  was  seen 
A  gentle  boy,  of  thoughtful  mien. 

Years  fled.     He  wore  a  manly  face, 
And  struggled  in  the  world's  rough  race, 
And  gained  at  last  a  lofty  place. 

And  then  he  died.     Behold  before  ye 
Humanity's  poor  sum  and  story,  — 
Life,  death,  and  all  that  is  of  glory." 


HIRAM  COLLEGE   MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      145 

V.  — J.  W.  BOBBINS  OF  OMAHA,  NEB. 
At  the  Chicago  Convention  a  motion  was  made 
one  day  that  three  members  should  be  expelled 
from  their  seats.  It  was  a  tumultuous  body,  sur- 
rounded, in  the  high  galleries  encircling  the  vast 
room,  by  ten  thousand  people.  The  delegates  had 
sat  there  until  worn  out.  It  was,  at  that  moment, 
a  gathering  which  seemed  to  be  ruled  more  by  pas- 
sion than  by  reason.  At  any  rate,  this  extraordi- 
nary resolution  which  had  been  read  was  about 
to  be  passed  with  a  storm  of  approval.  At  that 
moment  a  form,  familiar  to  so  many  here,  rose 
upon  a  chair;  and  I  never  can  forget  the  first 
words  that  he  spoke.  I  wish  that  I  could  repeat 
them  as  he  did.  It  was  only  necessary  for  him  to 
appear  before  that  Convention,  to  attract,  in  the 
midst  of  the  greatest  tumult,  universal  attention. 
He  said,  "  Gentlemen,  I  fear  that  we  are  about  to 
commit  a  great  error."  A  great  hush  fell  upon 
that  body  of  men,  and  they  commenced  to  think. 
He  talked  there  perhaps  ten  minutes.  He  talked 
long  enough  for  them  to  have  time  to  think,  and 
to  weigh  the  words  of  wisdom  that  he  spoke  ;  and, 
when  he  sat  down,  the  purpose  and  the  temper  of 
that  great  body  of  seven  hundred  delegates  were 


146      PRESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

changed  as  I  never  saw  a  change  wrought  before 
or  since.  It  was  to  General  Garfield,  owing  to 
the  peculiar  circumstances  which  it  would  not  be 
proper  for  me  to  mention  here,  the  greatest  per- 
sonal triumph,  I  believe,  that  ever  came  to  him  in 
all  his  life.  At  that  moment,  when  the  congratu- 
lations of  some  of  the  most  eminent  men  of  the 
nation  were  being  showered  upon  him,  I  hap- 
pened to  pass  along  where  he  was;  and  not 
thinking  that  my  congratulations  would  be  aught 
to  him,  but  filled  as  I  was  at  that  moment  with 
pride  and  with  such  emotions  at  the  grand  spec- 
tacle that  I  had  seen,  I  reached  out  my  hand  to 
him.  He  took  it,  and  with  his  other  pulled  me 
clear  down  to  him,  put  his  lips  to  my  ear,  and 
whispered  this :  "  How  many  Hiram  boys  do  you 
think  there  are  in  the  gallery  ?  "  That  needs  no 
comment.  In  that  moment  of  supreme  exulta- 
tion, in  that  moment  when  he  had  won,  as  I 
have  said,  the  grandest  personal  triumph  that 
ever  came  to  him,  his  first  thought  was  to  know 
whether,  in  all  that  vast  gathering,  there  were 
any,  and,  if  so,  how  many,  of  the  Hiram  circle, 
to  feel  pride  in  his  achievement,  and  to  share  with 
him  the  victory. 


HIBAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      147 


VI.— HON.  A.  H.  PETTIBONE  OF  GREENVILLE, 
TENN. 

Standing  to-day  before  an  audience  of  Hiram 
students,  with  all  the  sad  associations  and  thrill- 
ing memories  that  come  up  to  me,  I  am  reminded 
impressively  of  the  past.  I  come  from  the  battle- 
field of  Chickamauga,  where,  in  the  last  few  days, 
we  have  had  a  re-union  of  our  Garfield's  old  com- 
rades of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland ;  and,  when 
we  heard  that  finally  his  spirit  had  winged  its 
everlasting  flight,  we  turned  what  we  intended 
to  be  a  season  of  rejoicing  and  festivity  into  a 
solemn  requiem  occasion.  Speaking  to  you  with 
those  associations  at  Chickamauga  fresh  upon  me, 
I  can  but  think  of  the  sweet  lines  of  "  Miles 
O'Reilly:"- 

"  There  are  bonds  of  all  sorts  in  this  world  of  ours,  — 
Fetters  of  friendship,  and  ties  of  flowers, 

And  true-lover's  knots,  I  ween  : 
The  girl  and  the  boy  are  bound  by  a  kiss ; 
But  there's  never  a  tie,  old  friend,  like  this  :  — 
'  We  have  drunk  from  the  same  canteen.' " 

And  in  that  spirit,  coming  to  this  stand  on  this 
occasion,  and  in  the  presence  of  all  these  Hiram 
students,  —  recollecting  the  old  associations  that 


148      PBESIDENT    GAKF1ELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

used  to  bind  us  in  the  early  days,  —  I  feel  that  we 
have  all  of  us  "drunk  from  the  same  can- 
teen." 

But  it  is  not  for  me  to  occupy  time  in  reminis- 
cence. There  are  others  here  better  prepared 
and  better  fitted  to  do  that  than  I  am.  I  come 
here  for  another  purpose.  I  have  been  wont 
to  be  belligerent  in  life,  and  for  sixteen  years 
I  have  differed  most  fearfully  and  bitterly  from 
the  men  whom  we  used  to  meet  in  gray  along 
the  Tennessee ;  but  only  the  other  day,  under 
the  shadow  of  old  Lookout,  while  the  plain  of 
Chickamauga  lay  before  us,  and  the  old  heights 
of  Missionary  Ridge  frowned  down  upon  us,  I 
saw  a  scene  that  I  would  that  all  of  you  could 
see.  I  must  preface  my  account  of  it  by  saying 
that  the  last  time  I  ever  took  our  old  friend 
by  the  hand  was  just  a  week  before  the  assas- 
sin fired  the  fatal  pistol.  I  was  going  home  ;  and 
he  said  to  me  in  his  peculiar  way,  giving  me  not 
his  hand,  but  both  hands,  "  Good-by.  Tell  all 
the  boys  they  must  meet  me  at  Chattanooga,  at 
the  re-union  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland." 
And,  when  I  told  him  that  the  ex-Confederates 
were  going  to  meet  us  and  to  greet  us,  it  seemed 
to  put  new  animation  into  his  face,  and  new  fire 


HIBAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE.      149 

into  his  eye,  and  he  said,  "  Oh,  won't  we  have  a 
jolly  time  !  "  It  was  not  to  be ;  but  the  Confed- 
erate soldiers  met  us  there.  For  some  years  I 
have  felt  down  yonder  as  if  every  man's  hand 
was  against  me :  but  I  know  now  that  a  touch 
of  real,  genuine  feeling  makes  all  the  world  akin ; 
and  I  say  to  this  audience  in  Cleveland,  that  no- 
where in  the  world,  and  among  no  class  of  people, 
is  James  A.  Garfield  more  mourned  and  honored 
and  loved  than  among  the  stalwart  followers  of 
Stonewall  Jackson  and  Lee  and  Cheatham,  —  the 
nameless,  unnumbered  host  who  are  now  stretch- 
ing out  their  hands  to  us  from  all  the  land  be- 
tween us  and  the  Gulf.  I  saw  old  Frank  Cheat- 
ham,  who  fought  him  at  Chickamauga,  sitting 
upon  the  stand ;  and  again  and  again  the  tears 
unbidden  would  start  from  his  eyes  while  the 
minute-guns  were  firing,  reminding  us  that  Gar- 
field  was  no  more.  I  speak,  then,  for  that  people. 
All  Tennessee  is  in  mourning.  The  good  women 
and  the  good  men  of  the  South,  the  poor  men 
and  rich  men,  are  mourning  to-day,  literally  min- 
gling their  tears  with  ours.  For  long  weeks,  day 
after  day,  they  would  come  to  my  home  at  Green- 
ville, early  in  the  morning  and  late  in  the  evening, 
and  ask  me,  "Major,  how  is  our  President?" 


150      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

From  the  colored  people  and  the  mountaineers, 
from  the  glorious  old  boys  in  gray,  and  from 
those  I  love  still  better,  —  the  Union  soldiers  of 
Tennessee,  —  there  came  that  question ;  and  I 
noticed  always  an  accent  was  laid  upon  the  pro- 
noun our,  —  "  How  is  our  President  ?  " 

I  cannot  take  longer  time.  I  shall  bear  back 
to  that  people  your  feeling.  I  only  come  to  give 
you  their  greeting. 

VII.  —  H.   C.  WHITE,  ESQ.,   OF  CLEVELAND. 

The  composite  pillar  of  a  great  life  stands 
broken.  The  blow  of  the  inhuman  iconoclast  has 
fallen.  But  the  ruined  shaft  still  reaches  to  the 
heavens,  and  for  its  capital  bears  the  martyr's 
thorny  crown. 

We  are  here  to-day  with  aching  hearts,  but 
tender  hands,  to  garland  with  blooming  memories 
the  pedestal  of  this  masterpiece.  We  are  here  to 
open 

"  That  book  of  memory 

Which  is  to  grieving  hearts  like  the  sweet  shower 
To  the  parched  meadow  or  the  dying  tree ; 
Which  fills  with  elegy  the  craving  mouth 
Of  sorrow,  slakes  with  song  the  piteous  drought, 
And  leaves  us  calm,  but  weeping  silently." 


HIRAM  COLLEGE   MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      151 

The  lessons  of  the -life  here  closed,  like  its  own 
history,  are  easily  clustered  in  chapters.  These 
chapters  unfold  in  harmonious  development,  and 
are  merged  in  logical  gradations.  Yet  there  is  a 
marked  completeness  in  each  chapter.  His  life, 
thus  stratified,  illustrates  the  unyielding  grasp  of 
purpose  which  runs  through  its  entire  plan  and 
tenor.  Holding  on  to  this  single  clew,  running 
through  all  the  labyrinth  of  circumstances,  he 
marched  with  steady  step  through  all  the  wilder- 
ing  mazes  of  life.  It  is  given  us  here  to-day  to 
open  a  chapter  of  this  history,  completed  now  a 
quarter  of  a  century. 

James  A.  Garfield  never  ceased  to  be  a  teacher, 
because  he  never  ceased  to  be  a  learner.  Many 
of  us  here  knew  him  when  he  wielded  the  upbuild- 
ing forces  of  education  with  the  arm  of  a  Titan 
and  the  hand  of  a  master.  A  peculiar  tone  was 
given  to  his  career  as  teacher  by  the  fact  that 
during  the  whole  of  it  he  was  at  once  teacher  and 
learner.  Scattering  light  with  wonderful  efful- 
gence, his  light  was  clear  and  far-reaching,  be- 
cause he  was  simultaneously  filling  and  trimming 
his  own  lamp  of  knowledge.  Thus,  in  God's 
economy,  he  was  enabled  to  bless  us  out  of  that 
inheritance  of  poverty  which  was  his.  The  blend- 


152      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

ing  of  these  forces  aided  his  native  endowment 
of  mind  and  heart  in  the  production  of  those 
grand  qualities  which  he  possessed  in  such  full 
measure  as  a  teacher :  — 

First,  In  that  all-compassing  love  and  sym- 
pathy. 

Secondly,  In  that  exhaustless  enthusiasm  which 
sent  the  rippling  and  unseen  waves  of  inspiration 
into  the  dullest  and  deadest  soul. 

Not  entirely  to  the  progress  of  this  self-develop- 
ment must  we  attribute  his  great  power  as  an 
intellectual  and  moral  builder.  Such  power  was 
inborn  and  native  to  him.  He  won  many,  because 
he  loved  much.  By  the  sheer  force  of  the  spirit 
he  breathed,  he  lifted  all  who  touched  the  circle 
of  his  influence  to  a  higher,  purer  life.  Thus 
the  best  edifying  force  with  which  he  wrought 
was  his  own  noble  self.  His  whole  life  was  a 
constantly  increasing  offering-up  of  himself.  He 
began  the  sacrifice,  in  no  small  measure,  while  he 
was  a  teacher.  His  best  text-book  was  his  own 
great  heart,  mind,  and  life.  Broadly  and  deeply 
learned,  he  venerated  classic  learning,  and  bowed 
to  its  authority.  In  the  choice  of  methods,  he 
gave  it  its  due  office  as  a  disciplining  force.  More 
than  that,  in  the  alembic  of  his  mind,  in  the  very 


HIBAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      153 

process  of  mental  assimilation,  the  dead  tongue 
and  the  dead  past  took  on  the  glow  and  form  of 
living  beauty.  But,  after  all,  the  value  and  cur- 
rency of  this  coinage  came  largely  from  the  mould 
and  impress  of  his  mind  and  heart,  rather  than 
from  the  intrinsic  preciousness  of  the  native  metal. 
He  never  wore  the  perfunctory  mental  habit  of 
the  professor.  He  was  not  merely  equipped  with 
the  intellectual  weapons  of  the  scholastic  training- 
master,  to  be  thrown  down  at  the  end  of  the  hour 
of  drill.  He  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  mould 
moral  impressions.  Better  than  the  iron  of  the 
Latin  thought  and  tongue  he  taught  so  skilfully, 
was  the  love  that  he  poured  out  with  it.  Better 
than  the  philosophy  of  the  subtle  Greek,  was  the 
grace  of  his  life.  Better  than  the  great  systems 
of  science  that  he  opened,  was  the  sincerity  of 
character  irradiating  his  every-day  life.  Better 
than  his  expositions  of  mathematics,  was  his  ex- 
ample of  manliness. 

Another  source  of  his  power  lay  in  his  constant 
and  unwearied  lifting  into  view  of  great  life  pur- 
poses. How,  by  wisest  precept  and  loftiest  ex- 
ample, he  bent  up  the  angle  of  our  aims  to  high 
and  worthy  objects !  These  aims  were  not  the- 
oretical and  unattainable :  their  binding,  guiding 


154      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

force  lay  in  their  practicability.  Upon  these  grand 
harmonies  which  burst  upon  our  enraptured  ears 
in  the  olden  time,  his  whole  life  was  tuned.  They 
were  not  mere  erratic  ideals,  wandering  darkly  in 
his  heavens :  they  were  the  fixed  stars  to  which 
his  moral  vision  ever  turned,  on  whatever  stormy 
sea  he  rode. 

I  have  found  these  grand  tenets  of  his  life  crys- 
tallized in  forms  of  beauty  by  the  poetic  soul  of 
another,  now  dead.  Let  me  read  them.  This 
was  his  summary :  these  are  the  rules  he  always 
accepted :  — 

"  First,  labor.  Nothing  can  be  had  for  nothing.  What- 
ever a  man  achieves,  he  must  pay  for;  and  no  favor  of 
fortune  can  absolve  him  from  his  duty. 

"  Secondly,  patience  and  forbearance,  which  are  simply 
dependent  on  the  slow  justice  of  time. 

"Thirdly,  and  most  important,  faith.  Unless  a  man 
believes  in  something  far  higher  than  himself,  something 
infinitely  purer  and  grander  than  he  can  ever  become, — 
unless  he  has  an  instinct  of  an  order  beyond  his  dreams,  of 
laws  beyond  his  comprehension,  of  beauty,  goodness,  and 
justice  beside  which  his  own  ideals  are  dark,  —  he  will  fail 
in  every  loftier  form  of  ambition,  and  ought  to  fail." 

As  a  teacher,  he  possessed  in  wonderful  degree 
another  excellence :  upon  whomsoever  he  laid 


HIRAM  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      155 

hold,  he  never  let  go.  The  seeds  of  truth,  once 
implanted  by  his  hand,  he  watched  to  see  germi- 
nate, grow,  and  yield  fruit.  His  manner  of  deal- 
ing with  immortal  elements  rendered,  in  his  view, 
his  work  immortal.  Hence  those  who  had  re- 
ceived the  impress  of  his  moulding  hand,  he  bore 
with  him  in  the  casket  of  his  memory,  enshrined 
in  his  heart,  up  the  toilsome  steeps  of  his  glorious 
career ;  and,  while  standing  upon  "  the  perilous 
heights,"  he  still  bore  the  obscurest  to  the  end. 

Thus  transient  pupilage,  with  some  of  us,  be- 
came enduring  discipleship.  He  fashioned  his 
work  and  life  as  a  teacher  after  the  highest  model. 
In  the  harmonious  development  of  the  whole 
being,  —  the  only  true  culture,  —  in  the  imparta- 
tion  of  himself  in  loving  sympathy,  in  the  unyield- 
ing love  encircling  all  beneath  him,  he  exhibits 
the  pattern  of  the  Great  Teacher. 

I  know  these  are  dead  leaves,  rather  than  living 
flowers,  from  the  field  of  memory.  These  are 
but  the  superficial,  abstract  impressions,  left  after 
the  lapse  of  years.  To  me  the  sweet  savor  and 
memory  of  his  kindly  aid  as  a  teacher  is  the  rich- 
est of  all  legacies.  A  thousand  bright  memories 
springing  out  of  this  blessed  relationship  of  teacher 
and  pupil  come  thronging  around  me ;  but  they 


156      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

swim  and  glint  upon  the  floods  which  choke  the 
utterance.  To  many  of  you  was  vouchsafed  the 
blessing  of  other  and  later  relationships:  to  me 
the  older  one  never  ended.  God  grant  that  it 
may  never  end  to  any  of  us ! 

He  taught  lessons  to  all  people,  out  of  all  events. 
His  great  grasp  of  mind  and  wonderful  power  of 
generalization  made  it  easy  for  him  to  evoke  great 
lessons  out  of  all  situations  and  junctures;  and 
while  in  him  we  had  unbounded  faith,  and  trusted 
him  as  equal  to  all  trials  and  burdens,  yet  his  own 
humility  and  better  wisdom  never  allowed  him  to 
close  his  eyes  to  perils. 

His  own  prophetic  spirit  has  given  us  the  best 
lesson  that  we  can  get  out  of  the  awful  mystery 
of  the  hour.  Standing  on  the  sloping  heights  of 
Arlington,  over  the  graves  of  fifteen  thousand 
men,  he  spoke  these  words,  now  suggestive  and 
full  of  peace  to  us  all :  — 

"For  the  noblest  man  that  lives,  there  still  remains  a 
conflict.  He  must  still  withstand  the  assaults  of  time  and 
fortune,  must  still  be  assailed  with  temptations  before  which 
lofty  natures  have  fallen.  But  with  these  the  conflict  ended, 
the  victory  was  won,  when  death  stamped  on  them  the  great 
seal  of  heroic  character,  and  closed  a  record  which  years  can 
never  blot." 


HIRAM  COLLEGE   MEMORIAL   SERVICE.      157 


.  —  COLONEL  H.  N.  ELDRIDGE  OF  CHICAGO.1 
The  lengthening  shadows  remind  me  and  you 
that  you  have  a  right  to  be  impatient.  What  I 
have  to  say,  then,  shall  have  one  virtue,  —  brevity. 
You  have  gathered  at  this  place  of  prayer,  not 
to  recount  the  glories  of  the  soldier,  not  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  statesman.  It  is  for  another,  a  higher, 
a  holier  purpose.  These  upturned  faces  —  stran- 
gers to  me  individually,  for  the  most  part  —  I 
know  are  the  faces  of  those  who  have  sat  at  the 
same  seat  of  learning,  and  who  have  drank 
draughts  of  knowledge  from  the  same  source.  Of 
all  the  relationships  of  life,  so  far  as  my  knowl- 
edge and  observation  go,  the  relationships  which 
spring  from  college  association  are  the  purest,  the 
holiest,  the  best.  For,  after  all,  my  friends,  what 
are  all  these  grand  attainments  of  genius  without 
a  heart  ?  You  will  bear  me  out  in  saying,  that, 
above  and  beyond  all  men  that  you  ever  met, 
James  Abram  Garfield  had  the  power  of  making 
himself  a  part  of  your  life.  College  days,  of  all 
others,  are  the  days  of  sentiment  ;  and  the  recol- 
lection of  college  life  comes  as  a  sweet  memory 
in  the  bustling  cares  that  come  after,  and,  like 

1  Colonel  Eldridge  was  a  classmate  of  Garfield's  at  Williams. 


158      PEESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

glints  of  sunshine  through  the  rifted  cloud,  they 
are  a  glory  and  a  beauty  forever.  It  is  his  gener- 
ous impulses,  and  the  greatness  of  his  heart,  that 
you  and  I  have  come  here  to  think  of,  to  remember, 
and  to  dream  over  again,  this  September  afternoon. 
Wherever  Garfield  went,  he  carried  with  him 
that  which  could  never  be  forgotten.  I  recollect 
an  incident  that  occurred  soon  after  General  Han- 
cock was  nominated  for  the  Presidency,  when  there 
was  an  appearance  of  the  tide  turning  that  way. 
I  dined  with  a  pronounced  and  prominent  politi- 
cian ;  and  the  remark  was  made  by  me,  "  Should 
the  election  take  place  to-day,  I  fear  that  my  old 
friend  Garfield  would  be  in  the  minority."  — 
"Yes,"  said  he;  "but  the  election  don't  take  place 
to-day,  and  that  is  what  troubles  me.  I  fear  that 
betwixt  now  and  next  November  the  great  people 
of  the  North  will  learn  to  know  your  friend  as 
you  know  him."  My  friends,  the  millions  of  this 
land  and  the  millions  of  other  lands  are  begin- 
ning to  know  him  as  you  and  I  know  him ;  and  as 
the  days  shall  come,  and  as  the  time  of  this  solemn 
pageant  shall  become  the  past,  the  light  of  his 
memory  shall  be  as  the  torch  in  the  fisherman's 
boat,  that  distance  frees  from  all  smoke,  and  that 
only  gleams  the  brighter,  the  farther  it  recedes 
from  view. 


PART  II. 

$resfoent  ffiarfoto's  $peerfje$  antr 

ON 

EDUCATION  AND  EDUCATOKS, 


INTRODUCTION  TO  SPEECHES. 


riHHE  phrase  "  Education  and  Educators  "  does 
not  fully  describe  this  collection  of  addresses 
and  speeches.  Still  they  form  a  distinct  group, 
having  a  centre  of  unity,  and  so  may  properly  be 
brought  together.  Nor  has  any  better  description 
than  the  one  used  occurred  to  their  collector. 

The  great  interest  that  President  Garfield 
always  took  in  education,  even  after  he  ceased  to 
teach,  and  grew  to  influence  as  a  statesman,  is 
well  known  to  those  who  have  only  a  general 
acquaintance  with  his  life.  Still  the  extent  of  his 
interest,  and  the  value  of  his  contributions  to 
educational  discussions  and  literature,  is  known 
to  very  few.  Even  this  collection,  in  which  are 
brought  together  all  of  the  speeches  that  he  him- 
self published,  and  more  besides,  is  an  inadequate 
witness  to  his  interest  and  activity.  He  made 
many  lectures  and  addresses  at  institutes,  at  col- 
lege commencements,  and  to  schools  that  he  casu- 

161 


162      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

ally  visited,  which  were  either  never  published,  or 
were  meagrely  reported  in  the  local  press.  He 
was  always  a  generous  respondent  on  such  occa- 
sions, and  always  said  something  worth  remember- 
ing. Many  a  teacher  did  he  thus  cheer,  many  a 
student  stimulate,  many  a  parent  arouse  to  his 
duties  to  his  children,  many  a  citizen  awaken  to 
his  relations  to  public  education.  He  was  always 
keenly  alive  to  politics,  and  to  party  politics ;  but 
never,  even  in  the  most  exciting  times,  did  he  lose 
his  interest  in  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  the 
education  of  the  people.  This  collection  shows 
the  range  and  the  value  of  his  contributions  to 
the  discussions  of  these  subjects,  though  it  by  no 
means  exhausts  them.  It  shows  as  well  the  range 
of  his  reading  upon  educational  subjects. 

His  efforts  to  advance  the  educational  interests 
of  the  country,  as  they  are  here  revealed,  may  be 
grouped  under  four  heads. 

I.— THE  STATE  AND  EDUCATION. 

Here  his  influence  was  felt  along  several  lines 
of  educational  enterprise.  These  will  be  mentioned 
in  order. 

1.  The  National  Bureau  of  Education.  —  Feb. 
14,  1866,  Mr.  Garfield  presented  to  the  House  of 


INTRODUCTION   TO   SPEECHES.  163 

Representatives  a  memorial  of  the  National  Asso- 
ciation of  School  Superintendents,  recently  held 
in  Washington,  asking  for  the  establishment  of  a 
National  Bureau  of  Education;  also  a  bill  that 
accompanied  said  memorial.  This  bill  was  read 
twice,  referred  to  a  select  committee  of  seven,  and 
ordered  printed.  This  committee  consisted  of  the 
following  gentlemen:  Garfield  of  Ohio,  Patter- 
son of  New  Hampshire,  Boutwell  of  Massachu- 
setts, Donnelly  of  Minnesota,  Moulton  of  Illinois, 
Goodyear  of  New  York,  and  Randall  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

April  3,  following,  Mr.  Garfield  reported  from 
the  Committee  a  substitute  for  the  original  bill. 
This  bill,  known  as  House  Bill  No.  276,  was  wider 
in  its  scope  than  the  bill,  submitted  with  the  me- 
morial. Made  a  law,  it  would  establish  a  Depart- 
ment of  Education.  June  5  and  8  it  was  debated 
by  the  House  at  considerable  length.  It  was  sup- 
ported by  Messrs.  Donnelly,  Banks,  Beaman,  and 
others,  and  opposed  by  Messrs.  Rogers  and  Pike. 
In  its  favor,  it  was  argued  that  the  department  pro- 
posed would  be  of  great  service  in  gathering  and 
publishing  statistics  and  other  information  concern- 
ing education ;  also,  that  education  in  the  South 
needed  particular  attention,  that  the  States  were 


164      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

not  likely  to  give.  It  was  urged  against  the  bill, 
that  such  a  department  was  unnecessary  and  un- 
constitutional, and  that  it  would  be  expensive. 
Mr.  Garfield  closed  the  debate.  He  had  granted 
to  other  members  so  much  of  the  hour  allowed  by 
the  rules,  that  his  own  speech  was  cut  short  by 
the  Speaker's  hammer.  However,  in  obedience  to 
the  earnest  request  of  friends  of  education,  he 
wrote  out  his  speech  in  full,  and  published  it  as 
found  in  this  volume.  The  bill  was  lost,  59  yeas 
to  61  nays.  June  19  a  reconsideration  was  car- 
ried by  a  vote  of  76  to  44.  On  this  question,  Mr. 
Garfield  said  that  the  measure  was  framed  "  at  the 
earnest  request  of  the  School  Commissioners  of 
several  of  the  States."  He  added,  "  It  is  an  inter- 
est that  has  no  lobby  to  press  its  claims.  It  is 
the  voice  of  the  children  of  the  land,  asking  us  to 
give  them  all  the  blessings  of  our  civilization.  I 
hope  that  the  interest  which  has  moved  the  other 
side  of  the  House  to  vote  solidly  against  this  lib- 
eral and  progressive  measure  will  at  least  induce 
this  side  to  save  it  from  defeat."  The  expressions 
"  other  side  "  and  "  this  side  "  need  no  comment. 
Without  the  argument  implied  hi  these  terms,  it 
is  doubtful  whether  the  bill  would  have  carried. 
It  now  passed,  80  yeas  to  44  nays.  Immediately 


INTRODUCTION  TO  SPEECHES.       165 

the  bill  went  to  the  Senate,  and  was  referred  to 
the  Judiciary  Committee.  At  the  next  session, 
Jan.  30,  1867,  Mr.  Trumbull  reported  it  back  to 
the  Senate.  After  brief  discussion  it  passed,  Feb. 
27.  The  President's  approval,  March  2,  made  it 
a  law. 

That  this  beneficent  law  was  peculiarly  Mr. 
Garfield's  work,  is  shown  by  the  facts  recited.  He 
introduced  the  subject  to  the  House,  was  chair- 
man of  the  special  committee,  drew  up  the  bill, 
and  was  its  principal  champion  on  the  floor.  The 
bill  as  reported  by  him  was  not  changed  in  any 
particular  in  either  house.  What  is  more,  the 
great  change  wrought  in  the  temper  of  the  House, 
as  shown  by  the  votes  (June  8,  49  to  51 ;  June  19, 
80  to  44),  was  almost  wholly  due  to  the  persistent 
zeal  with  which  he  urged  the  measure  in  private. 

Apparently  the  Department  of  Education  was 
in  advance  of  public  sentiment :  certainly  it  was 
in  advance  of  Congressional  sentiment.  No  sooner 
was  it  created,  than  it  was  attacked.  In  these 
later  debates  the  measure  was  accredited  to 
Garfield's  "persuasive  eloquence."  One  mem- 
ber said  it  was  carried  by  "  dint  of  personal  en- 
treaty." The  author  of  the  Department  defended 
it  point  by  point.  He  protested  time  and  again 


166      PKESIDENT   GAKFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

against  "  putting  out  the  eyes  of  the  government." 
But,  in  spite  of  his  efforts,  the  Department  was 
reduced  to  a  Bureau  in  the  Interior  Department, 
the  appropriations  were  cut  down,  and  the  Bureau 
was  for  a  time  thoroughly  crippled.  By  and  by 
Congress  began  to  deal  more  generously  with  this 
child  of  his ;  and  the  appropriation  for  the  fiscal 
year  ending  June  30,  1882,  is  more  than  fifty 
thousand  dollars,1  the  largest  ever  made. 

The  Bureau  immediately  attracted  the  attention 
of  friends  of  education  in  the  Old  World.  John 
Bright  wrote  this  letter  concerning  it :  — 

"  ROCHDALE,  Jan.  4,  1868. 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  write  to  thank  you  for  sending  me  a 
copy  of  General  Garfield's  speech  on  education.  I  have  read 
it  with  much  interest. 

"  The  Department  now  to  be  constituted  at  Washington 
will  doubtless  prepare  statistics  which  will  inform  the  world 
of  what  is  doing  in  the  United  States  on  the  education  ques- 
tion ;  and  the  volume  it  will  publish  will  have  a  great  effect 
in  this  country,  and,  indeed,  in  all  civilized  countries. 

"  You  will  have  observed  the  increased  interest  in  educa- 
tion shown  in  England  since  the  extension  of  the  suffrage. 

1  These  are  the  yearly  appropriations:    1867,  §1,678.67;  1868, 

$11,757.17;  1869,  $23,151.82;  1870,  §5,842.50;  1871,  S14,606.00;  1872, 

$26,669.89;  1873,  $34,835.79;  1874,  $34,771.07;  1875,  $35,562.53;  1876, 

$35,561.00;  1877,  $32,061.79;  1878,  $30,340.00;  1879,  $31,220.00;  1880, 
$36,720.00;  1881,  $45,580.00;  1882,  $50,155.00. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  SPEECHES.       167 

I  hope  some  great  and  good  measure  may  be  passed  at  an 
early  period. 

"  I  am  very  truly  yours, 

"JOHN  BRIGHT. 

"  GEORGE  J.  ABBOT,  ESQ.,  United  States  Consul,  Sheffield." 

This  is  the  Act  as  drawn  by  him,  and  as  origi- 
nally passed :  — 

"  AN  ACT    TO   ESTABLISH    A   DEPARTMENT   OF   EDUCATION. 

"  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  Congress  assembled,  That 
there  shall  be  established,  at  the  city  of  Washington,  a  De- 
partment of  Education  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  such 
statistics  and  facts  as  shall  show  the  condition  and  progress 
of  education  in  the  several  States  and  Territories,  and  of 
diffusing  such  information  respecting  the  organization  and 
management  of  schools  and  school  systems,  and  methods  of 
teaching,  as  shall  aid  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  the 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  efficient  school  systems, 
and  otherwise  promote  the  cause  of  education  throughout 
the  country. 

"SECT.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  there  shall 
be  appointed  by  the  President,  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate,  a  Commissioner  of  Education,  who 
shall  be  intrusted  with  the  management  of  the  department 
herein  established,  and  who  shall  receive  a  salary  of  four 
thousand  dollars  per  annum,  and  who  shall  have  authority 
to  appoint  one  chief  clerk  of  his  department,  who  shall 
receive  a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars  per  annum,  one 


168      PRESIDENT   GARF1ELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

clerk  who  shall  receive  a  salary  of  eighteen  hundred  dollars 
per  annum,  and  one  clerk  who  shall  receive  a  salary  of  six- 
teen hundred  dollars  per  annum,  which  said  clerk  shall  be 
subject  to  the  appointing  and  removing  power  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Education. 

"  SECT.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  to  present  annually 
to  Congress  a  report  embodying  the  results  of  his  investi- 
gations and  labors,  together  with  a  statement  of  such  facts 
and  recommendations  as  will,  in  his  judgment,  subserve 
the  purpose  for  which  this  department  was  established.  In 
the  first  report  made  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education 
under  this  Act,  there  shall  be  presented  a  statement  of  the 
several  grants  of  land  made  by  Congress  to  promote  educa- 
tion, and  the  manner  in  which  these  several  trusts  have 
been  managed,  the  amount  of  funds  arising  therefrom,  and 
the  annual  proceeds  of  the  same,  as  far  as  the  same  can  be 
determined. 

"SECT.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Buildings  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed 
to  furnish  proper  offices  for  the  use  of  the  department 
herein  established." 

July  28,  1868,  this  provision  was  attached  to 
the  Legislative  Appropriation  Bill :  — 

"  After  the  thirtieth  day  of  June,  1869,  the  Department 
of  Education  shall  cease ;  and  there  shall  be  established  and 
attached  to  the  Department  of  the  Interior  an  office  to  be 
denominated  the  office  of  education,  the  chief  officer  of 


INTRODUCTION   TO   SPEECHES.  169 

•which  shall  be  Commissioner  of  Education,  at  a  salary  of 
three  thousand  dollars  per  annum,  who  shall,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  discharge  all  such 
duties,  and  superintend,  execute,  and  perform  all  such  acts 
and  things,  touching  and  respecting  the  said  office  of  educa- 
tion, as  are  devolved  by  law  upon  said  Commissioner." 

2.  The  Army  Post  Schools.  —  In  the  year  1866 
General  Garfield  brought  forward  another  educa- 
tional measure  that  has  already  yielded  fruit,  and 
that  promises  to  yield  still  more  in  the  future. 
May  2  he  moved  a  new  section  to  the  Army  Bill 
then  pending,  as  follows  :  — 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  whenever  troops  are  serv- 
ing at  any  post,  garrison,  or  permanent  camp,  there  shall 
be  established  a  school  where  all  enlisted  men  may  be  pro- 
vided with  instruction  in  the  common  English  branches  of 
education,  and  especially  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States ;  and  the  Secretary  of  War  is  authorized  and  di- 
rected to  detail  such  commissioned  and  non-commissioned 
officers  as  may  be  necessary  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of 
this  section." 

He  supported  the  proposition  in  this  short 
speech :  — 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  I  only  ask  a  word  on  that  subject.  One 
of  the  greatest  evils  known  in  standing  armies  is  the  evil 
of  idleness,  the  parent  of  all  wickedness,  and  especially  the 


170      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

ignorance  connected  with  it.  I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to  do 
something  to  eradicate  that  evil  from  our  army,  and  to  do 
something  to  make  it  a  patriotic  army.  In  the  wearisome 
months  spent  in  camp  and  at  posts  and  garrisons,  there  is 
nothing  for  the  soldiers  to  do  but  to  indulge  in  some  deviltry. 
It  is  a  great  evil  in  the  army.  I  want  the  enlisted  men. to 
have  opportunities  for  culture ;  and  I  ask  that  the  Secretary 
of  War  shall  detail  officers  fitted  for  that  purpose.  I  think 
such  a  section  will  relieve  the  army  from  this  evil.  It  has 
been  drawn  hastily,  but  I  think  will  commend  itself  to  the 
country. 

"One  word  more.  If  it  were  in  my  power,  I  would 
make  a  law  that  every  man  and  woman  in  the  United 
States  should  study  American  history  through  the  period 
of  then-  minority.  We  cannot  do  that  throughout  the 
United  States  generally,  but  we  can  enforce  it  to  some 
extent  upon  the  privates  in  our  army." 

The  proposed  section  was  added  to  the  bill : 
it  became  law,  and  forms  now  the  substance  of 
Section  1,231  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  thus  :  — 

"  Schools  shall  be  established  at  all  posts,  garrisons,  and 
permanent  camps  at  which  troops  are  stationed,  in  which 
the  enlisted  men  may  be  instructed  in  the  common  English 
branches  of  education,  and  especially  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States ;  and  the  Secretary  of  War  may  detail  such 
officers  and  enlisted  men  as  may  be  necessary  to  carry  out 
this  provision.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  post  or  garrison 
commander  to  set  apart  a  suitable  room  or  building  for 
school  and  religious  purposes." 


1NTEODUCTION  TO  SPEECHES.      171 

Little  or  no  attempt  to  carry  out  this  provision 
appears  to  have  been  made  until  the  end  of  the 
year  1877.  In  December  of  that  year  the  Secre- 
tary of  War,  "believing  this  to  be  an  important 
provision  of  law,  from  the  full  enforcement  of 
which  much  benefit  would  accrue,  not  only  to  the 
service,  but  to  the  enlisted  men,  —  many  of  whom 
sadly  needed  the  contemplated  instruction,"  — 
convened  a  board  of  officers  to  consider  what  steps 
should  be  taken  to  fully  carry  it  out.  This  board,. 
—  consisting  of  the  Quartermaster-General,  the 
Adjutant-General,  and  the  Judge- Advocate-Gen- 
eral,—  after  full  inquiry,  reported  an  elaborate 
code  of  rules  for  the  government  of  post  schools, 
libraries,  and  reading-rooms.  The  report  was  ap- 
proved by  the  Secretary,  and  announced  to  the 
army  in  General  Order  No.  24.  Col.  A.  McD. 
McCook  was  detailed  as  visitor  and  inspector  of 
the  various  post-schools,  with  all  the  necessary 
powers  and  authority.1  The  results,  up  to  No- 
vember, 1879,  are  thus  summed  up  by  Gen. 
Eaton,  the  head  of  the  National  Bureau :  — 

"  Immediate  measures  were  taken  at  nearly  all  the  perma- 
nent military  posts  toward  the  establishment  of  schools  for 
promoting  the  intelligence  of  soldiers  and  affording  educa- 

1  Keport  of  Secretary  of  War,  1878. 


172      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

tion  to  their  children,  as  well  as  to  those  of  officers  and 
civilians  at  the  remote  frontier-posts.  Requisitions  for  the 
construction  of  suitable  buildings  for  chapel,  school,  and 
library  were  soon  forwarded  by  post-commanders,  and  ap- 
proved by  the  War  Department,  whenever  funds  for  the 
purpose  were  available.  At  twenty-nine  posts  such  build- 
ings, at  a  cost  of  §33,708,  were  erected ;  and,  at  others,  exist- 
ing rooms  were  put  to  service.  In  all,  sixty-nine  posts  were 
thus  provided  with  schools  in  1878-79,  and  an  average  of 
seven  hundred  and  fifty-four  enlisted  men  and  one  thousand 
and  thirty-nine  children  received  instruction  in  them. 

"  A  letter  from  the  officer  who  was  put  in  general  charge 
of  this  education  in  the  army  (Gen.  A.  McD.  McCook)  says 
that  great  difficulty  has  been  experienced  in  the  selection  of 
enlisted  men  suitable  for  teachers,  and  that,  at  numerous 
posts,  schools  could  not  be  established  (or,  if  established, 
had  to  be  discontinued)  011  account  of  the  want  of  men  that 
could  be  trusted  to  do  the  teaching. 

"Enlisted  men  detailed  as  teachers  receive  thirty-five 
'  cents  a  day  extra  pay.  They  are  subject  to  military  disci- 
pline, as  other  soldiers,  and  are  liable  to  be  called  on  to  per- 
form active  service  at  any  time.  Normal  schools,  to  prepare 
for  teachers  enlisted  men  possessing  the  qualifications  and 
inclination  to  become  such,  have  been  established  at  Colum- 
bus Barracks,  O.,  and  David's  Island,  N.Y.,  depots  of  the 
general  recruiting-service,  and  thus  a  better  class  of  teachers 
will  probably  be  soon  provided.  They  are  expected  to 
understand  the  rudiments  of  a  common-school  education; 
to  be  conversant  with  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic ;  and 
to  possess  a  fair  knowledge  of  geography,  grammar,  and 


INTRODUCTION   TO   SPEECHES.  173 

history.     They  must  also  be  able  to  demonstrate  clearly, 
and  in  plain  language,  the  subjects  before  them.  ,^ 

"  School-books  for  these  schools  are  furnished  by  tne 
Quartermaster's  Department,  on  the  application  of  post- 
commanders,  in  lieu  of,  or  in  connection  with,  the  news- 
papers and  periodicals  which  it  has  been  the  custom  to  fur- 
nish to  each  post  in  proportion  to  its  strength  of  garrison." 

Since  1879  the  post-schools  have  made  laudable 
progress ;  and  there'  can  be  no  doubt  that  they 
will  do  much  for  the  intelligence  and  morale  of 
the  army  in  the  future.1 

3.  The  " Hoar  Bill."  —  The  speech  on  "National 
Aid  to  Education,"  Feb.  6,  1872,  was  in  support 
of  the  proposition  to  dedicate  the  public  lands  to 
education.     The  subject  under  immediate  consid- 
eration was  House  Bill  No.  1,043,  "  To  establish 
an  educational  fund,  and  to  apply  the  proceeds  of 
the  public  lands  to  the  education  of  the  people," 
—  what  is  known  as  the  "Hoar  Bill."     Unfortu- 
nately this  beneficent  measure  has  not  yet  be- 
come a  law,  though  steadily  growing  in  public 
favor;   but,  when  it  has  finally  triumphed,  Gen- 
eral Garfield's  early  and  able  advocacy  will  not  be 
forgotten. 

4.  Education  and  the   South.  —  President  Gar- 

1  See  Appendix  for  fuller  information  touching  these  schools. 


174      PRESIDENT    GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

field  studied  "  the  Southern  question  "  profoundly. 
That  he  saw  the  radical  trouble  in  the  South,  and 
knew  the  remedy,  is  shown  by  his  short  speech  to 
the  delegation  of  colored  men  that  visited  him  at 
Mentor,  Jan.  14,  1881.  In  a  private  letter  dated 
Dec.  30, 1880,  he  wrote,  "  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
final  cure  for  the  '  Solid  South '  will  be  found  in 
the  education  of  its  youth  and  in  the  development 
of  its  business  interests  ;  but  both  these  things  re- 
quire time."  No  part  of  his  Inaugural  is  more  elo- 
quent than  that  in  which  he  presented  this  subject. 
What  is  more,  in  the  last  private  conversation  the 
writer  ever  had  with  him  (the  evening  of  March 
6,  1881),  he  said,  "  I  am  going  to  keep  that  sub- 
ject before  me  all  the  time,  and  shall  see  that 
something  is  done  in  that  direction  if  possible." 
His  plan  was  not  worked  out,  probably,  when  he 
was  stricken  by  the  assassin's  bullet ;  but  his 
heart  was  fixed  upon  this  as  a  prominent  feature 
of  his  administration,  —  national  aid  to  public, 
N  and  especially  to  Southern,  education. 

II.  — THE   STATE  AND  SCIENCE. 

His  views  touching  this  question  were  always 
liberal  and  progressive.  In  the  Ohio  Senate  he 
strove  to  secure  the  enacting  of  a  law  authorizing 


INTRODUCTION    TO   SPEECHES.  175 

a  geological  survey  of  the  State.  He  submitted 
a  bill  for  that  purpose,  and  supported  it  in  a 
lengthy  and  able  report.  He  also  made  a  similar 
report  upon  weights  and  measures.  At  Washing- 
ton he  supported  every  intelligent  and  practical 
scheme  touching  the  extension  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge, or  its  reduction  to  practical  uses,  —  the  coast- 
survey,  the  light-houses,  the  signal-service,  the 
life-saving  service,  Arctic  exploration,  and  the 
geological  and  other  surveys. 

Every  man  who  went  to  him  with  a  well-con- 
sidered proposition  pointing  in  such  directions  as 
these  found  him  an  eager  and  appreciative  listener. 
The  scientific  men  of  the  country,  especially  those 
who  were  in  any  way  serving  the  government,  as 
well  as  the  public,  —  geologists,  botanists,  astron- 
omers, engineers,  and  explorers,  —  came  to  rely 
greatly  upon  him  for  securing  the  appropriations 
that  they  needed  to  carry  on  or  enlarge  their  work. 
Nor  was  this  solely  because  he  was  for  some  time 
the  head  of  the  Appropriations  Committee.  For 
many  years  he  was  a  regent  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution.  Here  he  was  brought  into  official 
relations  with  Agassiz  and  Henry,  both  of  whom 
became  his  intimate  friends.  His  general  views 
touching  the  sphere  of  the  National  Government 


176      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

as  respects  science,  he  stated  in  his  speech  upon 
that  subject.  • 

Besides,  he  made  a  strenuous  attempt,  in  1869, 
to  secure  a  more  rational  and  efficient  census  law. 
After  months  of  labor  enthusiastically  devoted  to 
the  subject,  he  carried  his  bill  through  the  House ; 
but  it  failed  in  the  Senate.  The  law  of  1880, 
under  which  our  only  real  census  has  been  taken, 
is  little  more  than  his  bill  of  ten  years  before 
reproduced. 

Here  it  may  be  remarked,  that  no  man  in  either 
house  of  Congress,  from  1863  to  1880,  was  more 
constantly  on  the  outlook  for  opportunities  to  do 
something,  by  way  of  legislation,  for  science,  edu- 
cation, and  general  knowledge.  The  man  who  cares 
to  go  through  the  Congressional  proceedings  will 
probably  be  surprised  to  find  how  often  he  came 
forward  with  an  amendment  to  a  bill,  or  with  an 
original  measure,  professing  to  reach  some  such 
end  that  he  thought  valuable.  Some  of  these 
failed,  but  many  succeeded. 

III.  — STUDIES  AND  METHODS. 

President  Garfield  graduated  in  the  traditionary 
college  course.  In  1854-56  the  modern  courses 
of  study  had  not  been  established,  at  least  fully, 


INTRODUCTION  TO  SPEECHES.      177 

in  any  American  college.  He  was  an  excellent 
classical  student  and  teacher.  Probably  he  did 
not  so  much  excel  as  a  grammarian ;  but  few 
students  or  teachers  equalled  him  in  reading 
thoughts  out  of  (or  into  ?)  Latin  or  Greek.  After 
he  became  absorbed  in  public  affairs,  he  kept 
alive  his  classical  reading,  more  particularly  the 
Latin  poets.  Once  he  said,  "Early  in  life  men 
read  Virgil ;  later,  Horace."  Certainly  Horace 
grew  upon  him  with  the  flight  of  years.  Since 
his  death,  it  has  been  said  that  his  collection  of 
editions  of  the  poet  is  one  of  the  finest  in  the 
country.  The  last  summer  Hon.  W.  M.  Evarts 
brought  him  a  new  and  choice  edition  that  he 
had  found  in  Europe.  This  was  presented  to  the 
President  on  his  sick-bed,  and  gave  him  much 
pleasure.  But,  while  thus  drawn  to  the  old  litera- 
tures by  taste,  appreciation,  and  association,  he 
could  not  help  seeing  that  the  new  conditions  — 
the  enormous  extension  of  knowledge,  the  growth 
of  modern  literature,  and  the  development  of 
industry  —  called  imperatively  for  a  widely  differ- 
entiated education.  The  "  new  education  "  took 
a  strong  hold  upon  his  mind.  He  ^believed  in  the 
new  courses  of  study.  He  favored  a  revision  of 
the  classical  course.  He  said  Greek  and  Latin 


178      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

must  somewhat  give  way,  but  confessed  at  the 
time  that  the  proposition  was  like  putting  his 
N  brothers  and  sisters  out  of  doors.  His  views  on 
these  subjects  matured  as  early  as  1867.  That 
year  the  Eclectic  Institute  became  Hiram  College. 
Naturally  he  was  called  upon  to  start  the  old 
school  upon  her  new  course.  This  he  did  in  the 
address  entitled  "College  Education,"  in  which 
he  stated  his  conclusions  both  fully  and  strongly. 
In  one  direction  they  are  also  developed  in  "  Ele- 
ments of  Success  in  Life."  Even  at  the  time 
when  he  spoke  at  Hiram  (1867),  and  before,  the 
era  of  change  in  college  study  had  begun.  Since 
that  day,  the  new  spirit  'has  reached  and  influ- 
enced nearly  every  college  in  the  land.  Attention 
may  also  be  called  to  the  short  speech  before  the 
Washington  Convention  of  School  Superintend- 
ents in  1879.  This  shows  that  he  thought  the 
public  schools  open  to  much  criticism  and  amend- 
ment. Perhaps  it  is  proper  to  add  that  his  private 
utterances  upon  this  point  were  even  stronger  than 
those  made  in  public. 

IV.— TCRIBUTES  TO  EDUCATORS. 

In  the  three  addresses  thus  grouped,  General 
Garfield  gives   expression  to  his  estimate  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  TO  SPEECHES.  179 

scientific  and  educational  character.  Dr.  Morse 
he  did  not  know  personally;  and  so  his  short 
speech  at  the  Morse  Commemoration  was  wholly 
historical.  But  the  other  two  addresses  are  full 
of  interesting  biographical  detail.  It  is  true  that 
Morse,  and  even  Henry,  in  later  years,  was  not 
an  educator  in  the  sense  of  being  a  teacher ;  but 
knowledge  is  so  related  to  instruction,  science  to 
education  proper,  that  the  admirable  commemora- 
tive addresses  upon  them  may  be  fitly  put  into 
this  collection.  There  is  a  peculiar  fitness  in  the 
other  addresses  appearing  here.  Miss  Booth  and 
Mr.  Garfield  were  fellow-students  and  fellow- 
teachers,  and  her  name  will  be  linked  with  his 
in  the  memories  of  hundreds  of  their  joint  disciples 
to  their  latest  day.  The  Hiram  fellowship  justly 
regard  this  as  an  admirable  discourse,  and  one  of 
the  noblest  products  of  his  eloquence.  With  it 
the  volume  fitly  closes. 


I. 

8Tfje  National  Bureau  of  lEoucatfon. 

SPEECH  IN   THE   HOUSE   OF   REPRESENTATIVES, 
JUNE  8,  1866. 


I. 

THE  NATIONAL  BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION. 

"A  /TR.  SPEAKER,  —  I  did  intend  to  make  a 
somewhat  elaborate  statement  of  the  rea- 
sons why  the  select  committee  recommend  the 
passage  of  this  bill ;  but  I  know  the  anxiety  that 
many  gentlemen  feel  to  have  this  debate  con- 
cluded, and  to  allow  the  private  bills  now  on  the 
calendar,  and  set  for  this  day,  to  be  disposed  of, 
and  to  complete  as  soon  as  possible  the  work  of 
this  session.  I  will  therefore  abandon  my  original 
purpose,  and  restrict  myself  to  a  brief  statement 
of  a  few  leading  points  in  the  argument,  and  leave 
the  decision  with  the  House.  I  hope  this  waiving 
of  a  full  discussion  of  the  bill  will  not  be  con- 
strued into  a  "confession  that  it  is  inferior  in  im- 
portance to  any  measure  before  the  House  ;  for  I 
know  of  none  that  has  a  nobler  object,  or  that 
more  vitally  affects  the  future  of  this  nation. 

I  first  ask  the  House  to  consider  the  magnitude 
of  the  interests  involved  in  this  bill.     The  very 

183 


184      PRESIDENT   GAKFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

attempt  to  discover  the  amount  of  pecuniary  and 
personal  interest  we  have  in  our  schools  shows  the 
necessity  of  such  a  law  as  is  here  proposed.  I 
have  searched  in  vain  for  any  complete  or  reliable 
statistics  showing  the  educational  condition  of  the 
whole  country. 

The  estimates  I  have  made  are  gathered  from 
various  sources,  and  can  be  only  approximately 
correct.  I  am  satisfied,  however,  that  they  are  far 
below  the  truth. 

Even  from  the  incomplete  and  imperfect  educa- 
tional statistics  of  the  Census  Bureau,  it  appears 
that  in  1860  there  were  in  the  United  States 
115,224  common  schools,  500,000  school  officers, 
150,241  teachers,  and  5,477,037  scholars;  thus 
showing  that  more  than  6,000,000  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  are  directly  engaged  in  the 
work  of  education. 

Not  only  has  this  large  proportion  of  our  popu- 
lation been  thus  engaged,  but  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  has  given  53,000,000  acres  of  public 
lands  to  fourteen  States  and  Territories  of  the 
Union  for  the  support  of  schools.  In  the  old 
ordinance  of  1785,  it  was  provided  that  one  sec- 
tion of  every  township  —  one  thirty -sixth  of  all 
the  public  lands  of  the  United  States — should 


THE  NATIONAL   BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      185 

be  set  apart,  and  held  forever  sacred  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  schools  of  the  country.  In  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787,  it  was  declared  that,  "religion, 
morality,  and  knowledge  being  necessary  to  good 
government  and  the  happiness  of  mankind, 
schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  forever 
be  encouraged." 

It  is  estimated  that  at  least  $50,000,000  have 
been  given  in  the  United  States  by  private  indi- 
viduals for  the  support  of  schools.  We  have  thus 
an  interest,  even  pecuniarily  considered,  hardly 
second  to  any  other.  We  have  school  statistics 
tolerably  complete  from  only  seventeen  States  of 
the  Union. 

Our  Congressional  Library  contains  no  educa- 
tional reports  whatever  from  the  remaining  nine- 
teen. In  those  seventeen  States,  there  are  90,835 
schools,  129,000  teachers,  5,107,285  pupils;  and 
$34,000,000  are  annually  appropriated  by  the 
Legislatures  for  the  support  and  maintenance  of 
common  schools.  Notwithstanding  the  great  ex- 
penditures entailed  upon  them  during  four  years 
of'  war,  they  raised  by  taxation  $34,000,000  annu- 
ally for  the  support  of  common  schools.  In  sev- 
eral States  of  the  Union,  more  than  fifty  per  cent 
of  all  the  tax  imposed  for  State  purposes  is  for  the 


186      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

support  of  the  common  schools.  And  yet  gen- 
tlemen are  impatient  because  we  wish  to  occupy 
a  short  time  in  considering  this  bill. 

I  will  not  trouble  the  House  by  repeating  com- 
monplaces so  familiar  to  every  gentleman  here,  as 
that  our  system  of  government  is  based  upon  the 
intelligence  of  the  people.  But  I  wish  to  sug- 
gest that  there  never  has  been  a  time  when  all 
our  educational  forces  should  be  in  such  perfect 
activity  as  at  the  present  day. 

Ignorance  —  stolid  ignorance  —  is  not  our  most 
dangerous  enemy.  There  is  very  little  of  that 
kind  of  ignorance  among  the  white  population  of 
this  country. 

In  the  Old  World,  among  the  despotic  govern- 
ments of  Europe,  the  great  disfranchised  class  — 
the  pariahs  of  political  and  social  life  —  are  in- 
deed ignorant,  mere  inert  masses,  moved  upon  and 
controlled  by  the  intelligent  and  cultivated  aris- 
tocracy. Any  unrepresented  and  hopelessly  dis- 
franchised class  in  a  government  will  inevitably 
be  struck  with  intellectual  paralysis.  Our  late 
slaves  afford  a  sad  illustration. 

But  among  the  represented  and  voting  classes 
of  this  country,  where  all  are  equal  before  the 
law,  and  every  man  is  a  political  power  for  good 


THE   NATIONAL  BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      187 

or  evil,  there  is  but  little  of  the  inertia  of  ignor- 
ance. The  alternatives  are  not  education  or  no 
education ;  but  shall  the  power  of  the  citizen  be 
directed  aright  towards  industry,  liberty, .  and 
patriotism  ?  or,  under  the  baneful  influence  of  false 
theories  and  evil  influences,  shall  it  lead  him  con- 
tinually downward,  and  work  out  anarchy  and 
ruin,  both  to  him  and  the  government? 

If  he  is  not  educated  in  the  school  of  virtue 
and  integrity,  he  will  be  educated  in  the  school  of 
vice  and  iniquity.  We  are,  therefore,  afloat  on 
the  sweeping  current :  we  must  make  head  against 
it,  or  we  shall  go  down  with  it  to  the  saddest  of 
destinies. 

According  to  the  census  of  1860,  there  were 
1,218,311  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age  who  could  not  read  or 
write;  and  871,418  of  these  were  American-born 
citizens.  One-third  of  a  million  of  people  are 
being  annually  thrown  upon  our  shores  from  the 
Old  World,  a  large  per  cent  of  whom  are  unedu- 
cated ;  and  the  gloomy  total  has  been  swelled  by 
the  4,000,000  slaves  admitted  to  citizenship  by 
the  events  of  the  war. 

Such,  sir,  is  the  immense  force  which  we  must 
now  confront  by  the  genius  of  our  institutions, 


188      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

and  the  light  of  our  civilization.  How  shall  it  be 
done?  An  American  citizen  can  give  but  one 
answer.  We  must  pour  upon  them  all  the  light 
of  O.UT  public  schools.  We  must  make  them  intel- 
ligent, industrious,  patriotic  citizens,  or  they  will 
drag  us  and  our  children  down  to  their  level. 
Does  not  this  question  rise  to  the  full  height  of 
national  importance,  and  demand  the  best  efforts 
of  statesmanship  to  adjust  it? 

Horace  Mann  has  well  said  that  — 

"  Legislators  and  rulers  are  responsible.  In  our  country 
and  in  our  times,  no  man  is  worthy  the  honored  name  of  a 
statesman  who  does  not  include  the  highest  practicable 
education  of  the  people  in  all  his  plans  of  administration. 

"  He  may  have  eloquence,  he  may  have  a  knowledge  of 
all  history,  diplomacy,  jurisprudence,  and  by  these  he  may 
claim,  in  other  countries,  the  elevated  rank  of  a  statesman ; 
but  unless  he  speaks,  plans,  labors,  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places,  for  the  culture  and  edification  of  the  whole  people,  he 
is  not,  he  cannot  be,  an  American  statesman." 

Gentlemen  who  have  discussed  the  bill  this 
morning  tell  us  that  it  will  result  in  great  expense 
to  the  government.  Whether  an  enterprise  is 
expensive,  or  not,  is  altogether  a  relative  question, 
to  be  determined  by  the  importance  of  the  object 
in  view. 


THE   NATIONAL  BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION.      189 

Now,  what  have  we  done  as  a  nation  in  the 
way  of  expenses  ?  In  1832  we  organized  a  Coast  . 
Survey  Bureau,  and  have  expended  millions  upon 
it.  Its  officers  have  triangulated  thousands  of 
miles  of  our  coasts,  have  made  soundings  of  all  our 
bays  and  harbors,  and  carefully  mapped  the  shoals, 
breakers,  and  coast-lines  from  our  northern  bound- 
ary on  the  Atlantic  to  the  extreme  northern 
boundary  on  the  Pacific  coast.  They  have  estab- 
lished eight  hundred  tidal  stations  to  observe  the 
fluctuations  of  the  tides.  We  have  expended  vast 
sums  in  order  perfectly  to  know  the  topography 
of  our  coasts,  lakes,  and  rivers,  that  we  might 
make  navigation  more  safe.  Is  it  of  no  conse- 
quence that  we  explore  the  boundaries  of  that 
wonderful  intellectual  empire  which  encloses  with- 
in its  domain  the  fate  of  succeeding  generations 
and  of  this  Republic  ?  The  children  of  to-day  will 
be  the  architects  of  our  country's  destiny  in  1900. 

We  have  established  an  Astronomical  Observa- 
tory, where  the  movements  of  the  stars  are 
watched,  latitude  and  longitude  calculated,  and 
chronometers  regulated  for  the  benefit  of  naviga- 
tion. For  this  observatory  we  pay  one-third  of  a 
million  per  annum.  Is  it  of  no  consequence  that 
you  observe  the  movements  of  those  stars  which 


190      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

shall,  in  the  time  to  come,  be  guiding  stars  in  our 
national  firmament  ? 

We  have  established  a  Light  House  Board,  that 
is  employing  all  the  aids  of  science  to  discover 
the  best  modes  of  regulating  the  beacons  upon 
our  shores:  it  is  placing  buoys  as  way-marks  to 
guide  ships  safely  into  our  harbors.  Will  you  not 
create  a  light-house  board  to  set  up  beacons  for 
the  coming  generation,  not  as  lights  to  the  eye, 
but  to  the  mind  and  heart,  that  shall  guide  them 
safely  in  the  perilous  voyage  of  life,  and  enable 
them  to  transmit  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  those 
who  shall  come  after  them  ? 

We  have  set  on  foot  a  score  of  expeditions  to 
explore  the  mountains  and  valleys,  the  lakes  and 
rivers,  of  this  and  other  countries.  We  have  ex- 
pended money  without  stint  to  explore  the  Ama- 
zon and  the  Jordan,  Chili  and  Japan,  the  gold 
shores  of  Colorado  and  the  copper  cliffs  of  Lake 
Superior,  to  gather  and  publish  the  great  facts  of 
science,  and  to  exhibit  the  material  resources  of 
physical  nature.  Will  you  refuse  the  pitiful  sum 
of  $13,000  to  collect  and  record  the  intellectual 
resources  of  this  country,  the  elements  that  lie 
behind  all  material  wealth,  and  make  it  either  a 
curse  or  a  blessing  ? 


THE  NATIONAL   BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      191 

We  have  paid  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars 
for  the  survey  of  the  route  for  the  Pacific  Railroad, 
and  have  published  the  results,  at  a  great  cost,  in 
thirteen  quarto  volumes,  with  accompanying  maps 
and  charts.  The  money  for  these  purposes  was 
freely  expended.  And  now,  when  it  is  proposed 
to  appropriate  $13,000  to  aid  in  increasing  the 
intelligence  of  those  who  will  use  that  great  con- 
tinental highway  when  it  is  completed,  we  are 
reminded  of  our  debts,  and  warned  against  in- 
creasing our  expenditures.  It  is  difficult  to  treat 
such  an  objection  with  the  respect  that  is  always 
due  in  this  hall  of  legislation. 

We  have  established  a  Patent  Office,  where  are 
annually  accumulated  thousands  of  models  of  new 
machines  invented  by  our  people.  Will  you  make 
no  expenditure  for  the  benefit  of  the  intelligence 
that  shall  stand  behind  those  machines,  and  be 
their  controller  ?  Will  you  bestow  all  your  favors 
upon  the  engine,  and  ignore  the  engineer?  I  will 
not  insult  the  intelligence  of  this  House  by  wait- 
ing to  prove  that  money  paid  for  education  is  the 
most  economical  of  all  expenditure ;  that  it  is 
cheaper  to  prevent  crime  than  to  build  jails ;  that 
schoolhouses  are  less  expensive  than  rebellions. 
A  tenth  of  our  national  debt  expended  in  public 


192      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

education  fifty  years  ago  would  have  saved  us  the 
blood  and  treasure  of  the  late  war.  A  far  less 
sum  may  save  our  children  from  a  still  greater 
calamity. 

We  expend  hundreds  of  thousands  annually  to 
promote  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  country,  — 
to  introduce  the  best  methods  in  all  that  pertains 
to  husbandry.  Is  it  not  of  more  consequence  to 
do  something  for  the  farmer  of  the  future  than  for 
the  farm  of  to-day  ? 

As  man  is  more  precious  than  soil,  as  the  im- 
mortal spirit  is  nobler  than  the  clod  it  animates, 
so  is  the  object  of  this  bill  more  important  than 
any  mere  pecuniary  interest. 

The  genius  of  our  government  does  not  allow 
us  to  establish  a  compulsory  system  of  education, 
as  is  done  in  some  of  the  countries  of  Europe. 
There  are  States  in  this  Union,  however,  which 
have  adopted  a  compulsory  system ;  and  perhaps 
that  is  well.  It  is  for  each  State  to  determine.  A 
distinguished  gentleman  from  Rhode  Island  told 
me  lately  that  it  is  now  the  law  in  that  State  that 
every  child  within  its  borders  shall  attend  school, 
and  that  every  vagrant  child  shall  be  taken  in 
charge  by  the  authorities,  and  sent  to  school.  It 
may  be  well  for  other  States  to  pursue  the  same 


THE   NATIONAL   BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      193 

course ;  but  probably  the  General  Government  can 
do  nothing  of  the  sort.  Whether  it  has  the  right 
of  compulsory  control,  or  not,  we  propose  none  in 
this  bill. 

But  we  do  propose  to  use  that  power,  so  effec- 
tive in  this  country,  of  letting  in  light  on  sub- 
jects, and  holding  them  up  to  the  verdict  of  public 
opinion.  If  it  could  be  published  annually  from 
this  Capitol,  through  every  school-district  of  the 
United  States,  that  there  are  States  in  the  Union 
that  have  no  system  of  common  schools ;  and  if 
their  records  could  be  placed  beside  the  records  of 
such  States  as  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio,  and  other  States  that  have  a  com- 
mon-school system,  —  the  mere  statement  of  the 
fact  would  rouse  their  energies,  and  compel  them 
for  shame  to  educate  their  children.  It  would 
shame  all  the  delinquent  States  out  of  their  delin- 
quency. 

Mr.  Speaker,  if  I  were  called  upon  to-day  to 
point  to  that  in  my  own  State  of  which  I  am  most 
proud,  I  would  not  point  to  any  of  the  flaming 
lines  of  her  military  record,  to  the  heroic  men  and 
the  brilliant  officers  she  gave  to  this  contest;  I 
would  not  point  to  any  of  her  leading  men  of  the 
past  or  the  present :  but  I  would  point  to  her  com 


194      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

mon  schools  ;  I  would  point  to  the  honorable  fact, 
that  in  the  great  struggle  of  five  years,  through 
which  we  have  just  passed,  she  has  expended 
$12,000,000  for  the  support  of  her  public  schools. 
I  do  not  include  in  that  amount  the  sums  ex- 
pended upon  our  higher  institutions  of  learning. 
I  would  point  to  the  fact,  that  fifty-two  per  cent 
of  the  taxation  of  Ohio  for  the  last  five  years, 
aside  from  the  war-tax  and  the  tax  for  the  pay- 
ment of  her  public  debt,  has  been  for  the  support 
of  her  schools.  I  would  point  to  the  schools  of 
Cincinnati,  Cleveland,  Toledo,  and  other  cities  of 
the  State,  if  I  desired  a  stranger  to  see  the  glory 
of  Ohio.  I  would  point  to  the  13,000  school- 
houses  and  the  700,000  pupils  in  the  schools  of 
Ohio.  I  would  point  to  the  $3,000,000  she  has 
paid  for  schools  during  the  last  year  alone.  This, 
in  my  judgment,  is  the  proper  gauge  by  which  to 
measure  the  progress  and  glory  of  States. 

Gentlemen  tell  us  there  is  no  need  of  this  bill, 
the  States  are  doing  well  enough  now.  Do  they 
know  through  what  a  struggle  every  State  has 
come  up,  that  has  secured  a  good  system  of  com- 
mon schools?  Let  me  illustrate  this  by  one  ex- 
ample. Notwithstanding  the  early  declaration  of 
William  Penn,— 


THE  NATIONAL  BUKEATJ  OF  EDUCATION.      195 

"That  which  makes  a  good  constitution  must  keep  it, 
namely,  men  of  wisdom  and  virtue ;  qualities,  that,  because 
they  descend  not  with  worldly  inheritance,  must  be  carefully 
propagated  by  a  virtuous  education  of  youth,  for  which 
spare  no  cost,  for  by  such  parsimony  all  that  is  saved  ia 
lost ; " 

notwithstanding  that  wise  master-builder  incor- 
porated this  sentiment  in  his  "  framework  of  gov- 
ernment," and  made  it  the  duty  of  the  governor 
and  council  "  to  establish  and  support  public 
schools ; "  notwithstanding  Benjamin  Franklin, 
from  the  first  hour  he  became  a  citizen  of  Penn- 
sylvania, inculcated  the  value  of  useful  knowl- 
edge to  every  human  being  in  every  walk  of  life, 
and  by  his  personal  and  pecuniary  effort  did 
establish  schools  and  a  college  for  Philadelphia; 
notwithstanding  the  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania 
made  it  obligatory  upon  the  Legislature  to  foster 
the  education  of  the  citizens :  notwithstanding  all 
this,  it  was  not  till  1833-34  that  a  system  of  com- 
mon schools,  supported  in  part  by  taxation  of  the 
property  of  the  State,  for  the  common  benefit  of 
all  the  children  of  the  State,  was  established  by 
law ;  and,  although  the  law  was  passed  by  an 
almost  unanimous  vote  of  both  branches  of  the 
Legislature,  so  foreign  was  the  idea  of  public 


196      PBESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

schools  to  the  habits  of  the  people,  so  odious  was 
the  idea  of  taxation  for  this  purpose,  that  even 
the  poor  who  were  to  be  specially  benefited  were 
so  deluded  by  political  demagogues  as  to  clamor 
for  its  repeal. 

Many  members  who  voted  for  the  law  lost  their 
nominations ;  and  others,  although  nominated,  lost 
their  elections.  Some  were  weak  enough  to  pledge 
themselves  to  a  repeal  of  the  law;  and  in  the 
session  of  1835  there  was  an  almost  certain  pros- 
pect of  its  repeal,  and  the  adoption  in  its  place  of 
an  odious  and  limited  provision  for  educating  the 
children  of  the  poor  by  themselves.  In  the  dark- 
est hour  of  the  debate,  when  the  hearts  of  the 
original  friends  of  the  system  were  failing  from 
fear,  there  rose  on  the  floor  of  the  House  one  of 
its  early  champions,  one  who,  though  not  a  native 
of  the  State,  felt  the  disgrace  which  the  repeal  of 
this  law  would  inflict,  like  a  knife  in  his  bosom ; 
one  who,  though  no  kith  or  kin  of  his  would  be 
benefited  by  the  operations  of  the  system,  and 
though  he  should  share  its  burdens,  would  only 
partake  with  every  citizen  in  its  blessings;  one 
who  voted  for  the  original  law  although  intro- 
duced by  his  political  opponents,  and  who  had 
defended  and  gloried  in  his  vote  before  an  angry  . 


THE  NATIONAL   BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      197 

and  unwilling  constituency :  this  man,  then  in  the 
beginning  of  his  public  career,  threw  himself  into 
the  conflict,  and  by  his  earnest  and  brave  elo- 
quence saved  the  law,  and  gave  a  noble  system 
of  common  schools  to  Pennsylvania. 

I  doubt  if  at  this  hour,  after  the  thirty  years 
crowded  full  of  successful  labors  at  the  bar,  before 
the  people,  and  in  halls  of  legislation,  the  venera- 
ble and  distinguished  member  [Mr.  Stevens],  who 
now  represents  a  portion  of  the  same  State  in  this 
House,  can  recall  any  speech  of  his  life  with  half 
the  pleasure  he  does  that,  for  no  measure  with 
which  his  name  has  been  connected  is  so  fraught 
with  blessings  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  chil- 
dren, and  to  homes  innumerable. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  copy  of  his  brave  speech, 
and  I  ask  the  clerk  to  read  the  passages  I  have 
marked. 

"  I  am  comparatively  a  stranger  among  you,  born  in  an- 
other, in  a  distant  State :  no  parent  or  kindred  of  mine  did, 
does,  or  probably  ever  will,  dwell  within  your  borders.  I 
have  none  of  those  strong  cords  to  bind  me  to  your  honor 
and  your  interest ;  yet,  if  there  is  any  one  thing  on  earth 
which  I  ardently  desire  above  all  others,  it  is  to  see  Penn- 
sylvania standing  up  in  her  intellectual,  as  she  confessedly 
does  in  her  physical  resources,  high  above  all  her  confed- 


198      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

erate  rivals.  How  shameful,  then,  would  it  be  for  these  her 
native  sons  to  feel  less  so,  when  the  dust  of  their  ancestors 
is  mingled  with  her  soil,  their  friends  and  relatives  enjoy 
her  present  prosperity,  and  their  descendants,  for  long  ages 
to  come,  will  partake  of  her  happiness  or  misery,  her  glory 
or  her  infamy ! 

"  In  giving  this  law  to  posterity,  you  act  the  part  of  the 
philanthropist  by  bestowing  upon  the  poor,  as  well  as  the 
rich,  the  greatest  earthly  boon  which  they  are  capable  of 
receiving ;  you  act  the  part  of  the  philosopher  bv  pointing, 
if  you  do  not  lead  them,  up  the  hill  of  science ;  ;you  act  the 
part  of  the  hero,  if  it  be  true,  as  you  say,  that  popular 
vengeance  follows  close  upon  your  footsteps.  Here,  then,  if 
you  wish  true  popularity,  is  a  theatre  on  which  you  may 
acquire  it. 

"  Let  all,  therefore,  who  would  sustain  the  character  of  the 
philosopher  or  philanthropist,  sustain  this  law.  Those  who 
would  add  thereto  the  glory  of  the  hero  can  acquire  it  here ; 
for,  in  the  present  state  of  feeling  in  Pennsylvania,  I  am 
willing  to  admit  that  but  little  less  dangerous  to  the  public 
man  is  the  war-club  and  battle-axe  of  savage  ignorance  than 
to  the  lion-hearted  Richard  was  the  keen  cimeter  of  the 
Saracen.  He  who  would  oppose  it,  either  through  inability 
to  comprehend  the  advantages  of  general  education,  or  from 
unwillingness  to  bestow  them  on  all  his  fellow-citizens,  even 
to  the  lowest  and  the  poorest,  or  from  dread  of  popular 
vengeance,  seems  to  me  to  want  either  the  head  of  the 
philosopher,  the  heart  of  the  philanthropist,  or  the  nerve  of 
the  hero." 


THE   NATIONAL   BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      199 

He  has  lived  long  enough  to  see  this  law,  which 
he  helped  to  found  in  1834,  and  more  than  any 
other  man  was  instrumental  in  saving  from  repeal 
in  1835,  expanded  and  consolidated  into  a  noble 
system  of  public  instruction.  12,000  schools  have 
been  built  by  the  voluntary  taxation  of  the  people, 
to  the  amount,  for  schoolhouses  alone,  of  nearly 
$10,000,000.  Many  millions  of  children  have  been 
educated  in  these  schools.  More  than  700,000 
attended  the  public  schools  of  Pennsylvania  in 
1864-65 ;  and  their  annual  cost  provided  by  vol- 
untary taxation,  in  the  year  1864,  was  nearly 
.$3,000,000,  giving  employment  to  16,000  teach- 
ers. 

It  is  glory  enough  for  one  man  to  have  con- 
nected his  name  so  honorably  with  the  original 
establishment  and  effective  defence  of  such  a 
system. 

But  it  is  said  that  the  thirst  for  knowledge 
among  the  young,  and  the  pride  and  ambition  of 
parents  for  their  children,  are  agencies  powerful 
enough  to  establish  and  maintain  thorough  and 
comprehensive  systems  of  education. 

This  suggestion  is  answered  by  the  unanimous 
voice  of  publicists  and  political  economists.  They 
all  admit  that  the  doctrine  of  "  demand  and  sup- 


200      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

ply  "  does  not  apply  to  educational  wants.  Even 
the  most  extreme  advocates  of  the  principle  of 
laissez-faire  as  a  sound  maxim  of  political  philos- 
ophy admit  that  governments  must  interfere  in 
aid  of  education.  We  must  not  wait  for  the  wants 
of  the  rising  generation  to  "be  expressed  in  a 
demand  for  means  of  education.  We  must  our- 
selves discover  or  supply  their  needs,  before  the 
time  for  supplying  them  has  forever  passed. 

In  his  "  Political  Economy," l  John  Stuart  Mill 
says,— 

"  But  there  are  other  things,  of  the  worth  of  which  the 
demand  of  the  market  is  by  no  means  a  test;  things  of 
which  the  utility  does  not  consist  in  ministering  to  inclina- 
tions, nor  in  serving  the  daily  uses  of  life,  and  the  want  of 
which  is  least  felt  where  the  need  is  greatest.  This  is  pecul- 
iarly true  of  those  things  which  are  chiefly  useful  as  tend- 
ing to  raise  the  character  of  human  beings.  The  uncul- 
tivated cannot  be  competent  judges  of  cultivation. 

"  Those  who  most  need  to  be  made  wiser  and  better  usu- 
ally desire  it  least,  and,  if  they  desired  it,  would  be  incapable 
of  finding  the  way  to  it  by  their  own  lights.  It  will  con- 
tinually happen,  on  the  voluntary  system,  that,  the  end  not 
being  desired,  the  means  will  not  be  provided  at  all,  or  that, 
the  persons  requiring  improvement  having  an  imperfect  or 
iiltogether  erroneous  conception  of  what  they  want,  the  supply 

1  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  528,  529;  American  ed.,  pp.  573-575. 


THE  NATIONAL  BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION.      201 

called  forth  by  the  demand  of  the  market  will  be  any  thing 
but  what  is  really  required.  Now,  any  well-intentioned  and 
tolerably  civilized  government  may  think,  without  presump- 
tion, that  it  does,  or  ought  to,  possess  a  degree  of  cultivation 
above  the  average  of  the  community  which  it  rules,  and 
that  it  should  therefore  be  capable  of  offering  better  educa- 
tion and  better  instruction  to  the  people,  than  the  greater 
number  of  them  would  spontaneously  demand. 

"  Education,  therefore,  is  one  of  those  things  which  it  is 
admissible  in  principle  that  the  government  should  provide 
for  the  people.  The  case  is  one  to  which  the  reasons  of  the 
non-interference  principle  do  not  necessarily  or  universally 
extend. 

"  With  regard  to  elementary  education,  the  exception  to 
ordinary  rules  may,  I  conceive,  justifiably  be  carried  still 
further.  There  are  certain  primary  elements  and  means  of 
knowledge  which  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  that 
all  human  beings  born  into  the  community  should  acquire 
during  childhood.  If  their  parents,  or  those  on  whom  they 
depend,  have  the  power  of  obtaining  for  them  this  instruc- 
tion, and  fail  to  do  it,  they  commit  a  double  breach  of  duty, 
—  toward  the  children  themselves,  arid  toward  the  members 
of  the  community  generally,  who  are  all  liable  to  suffer 
seriously  from  the  consequences  of  ignorance  and  want  of 
education  in  their  fellow-citizens.  It  is  therefore  an  allow- 
able exercise  of  the  powers  of  a  government  to  impose  on 
parents  the  legal  obligation  of  giving  elementary  instruction 
to  children.  This,  however,  cannot  fairly  be  done  without 
taking  measures  to  insure  that  such  instruction  shall  be 
always  accessible  to  them,  either  gratuitously  or  at  a  trifling 
expense." 


202      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

This  is  the  testimony  of  economic  science.  I 
trust  the  statesmen  of  this  Congress  will  not  think 
the  subject  of  education  too  humble  a  theme  for 
their  most  serious  consideration.  It  has  engaged 
the  earnest  attention  of  the  best  men  of  ancient 
and  modern  times,  especially  of  modern  statesmen 
and  philanthropists. 

I  will  fortify  myself  in  the  positions  I  have  taken 
by  quoting  the  authority  of  a  few  men  who  are 
justly  regarded  as  teachers  of  the  human  race.  If 
I  keep  in  their  company,  I  cannot  wander  far  from 
the  truth.  I  cannot  greatly  err  while  I  am  guided 
by  their  counsel. 

In  his  eloquent  essay  entitled  "  Way  to  establish 
a  Free  Commonwealth,"  John  Milton  said,  — 

"  To  make  the  people  fittest  to  choose,  and  the  chosen 
fittest  to  govern,  will  be  to  mend  our  corrupt  and  faulty 
education,  to  teach  the  people  faith,  not  without  virtue, 
temperance,  modesty,  sobriety,  economy,  justice ;  not  to  ad- 
mire wealth  or  honor ;  to  hate  turbulence  and  ambition  ;  to 
place  every  one  his  private  welfare  and  happiness  in  the 
public  peace,  liberty,  and  safety." 

England's  most  venerable  living  statesman, 
Lord  Brougham,  enforced  the  same  truth  in  these 
noble  words :  — 


THE   NATIONAL   BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      203 

"  Lawgivers  of  England,  I  charge  ye,  have  a  care  1  Be 
•well  assured  that  the  contempt  lavished  upon  the  cabals  of 
Constantinople,  when  the  council  disputed  on  a  text  while 
the  enemy,  the  derider  of  all  their  texts,  was  thundering  at 
the  gate,  will  be  a  token  of  respect  compared  with  the  loud 
shout  of  universal  scorn  which  all  mankind  in  all  ages  will 
send  up  against  you  if  you  stand  still  and  suffer  a  far  dead- 
lier foe  than  the  Turcoman  —  suffer  the  parent  of  all  evil, 
all  falsehood,  all  hypocrisy,  all  discharity,  all  self-seeking, 
him  who  covers  over  with  pretexts  of  conscience  the  pitfalls 
that  he  digs  for  the  souls  on  which  he  preys  —  to  stalk  about 
the  fold,  and  lay  waste  its  inmates  :  stand  still,  and  make  no 
head  against  him,  upon  the  vain  pretext,  to  soothe  your 
indolence,  that  your  action  is  obstructed  by  religious  cabals, — 
upon  the  far  more  guilty  speculation,  that  by  playing  a  party 
game  you  can  turn  the  hatred  of  conflicting  professors  to 
your  selfish  purposes ! 

"  Let  the  soldier  be  abroad  if  he  will :  he  can  do  nothing 
in  this  age.  There  is  another  personage  abroad,  — a  person 
less  imposing, — in  the  eye  of  some,  insignificant.  The 
schoolmaster  is  abroad ;  and  I  trust  to  him,  armed  with  his 
primer,  against  the  soldier  in  full  uniform  array." 

Lord  Brougham  gloried  in  the  title  of  School- 
master, and  contrasted  his  work  with  that  of  the 
military  conqueror  in  these  words :  — 

"  The  conqueror  stalks  onward  with  '  the  pride,  pomp,  and 
circumstance  of  war,'  banners  flying,  shouts  rending  the  air, 
guns  thundering,  and  martial  music  pealing,  to  drown  the 


204      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

shrieks  of  the  wounded  and  the  lamentations  for  the  slain. 
Not  thus  the  schoolmaster  in  his  peaceful  vocation.  He 
meditates  and  prepares  in  secret  the  plans  which  are  to  bless 
mankind;  he  slowly  gathers  around  him  those  who  are  to 
further  their  execution ;  he  quietly,  though  firmly,  advances 
in  his  humble  path,  laboring  steadily,  but  calmly,  till  he  has 
opened  to  the  light  all  the  recesses  of  ignorance,  and  torn  up 
by  the  roots  the  weeds  of  vice.  His  is  a  progress  not  to  be 
compared  with  any  thing  like  a  march ;  but  it  leads  to  a  far 
more  brilliant  triumph,  and  to  laurels  more  imperishable 
than  the  destroyer  of  his  species,  the  scourge  of  the  world, 
ever  won." 

The  learned  and  brilliant  Guizot,  who  regarded 
his  work  in  the  office  of  Minister  of  Public  Instruc- 
tution,  in  the  government  of  France,  the  noblest 
and  most  valuable  work  of  his  life,  has  left  us  this 
valuable  testimony :  — 

"  Universal  education  is  henceforth  one  of  the  guaranties 
of  liberty  and  social  stability.  As  every  principle  of  our 
government  is  founded  on  justice  and  reason,  to  diffuse  edu- 
cation among  the  people,  to  develop  their  understandings 
and  enlighten  their  minds,  is  to  strengthen  their  constitu- 
tional government,  and  secure  its  stability." 

In  his  Farewell  Address,  Washington  wrote  these 
words  of  wise  counsel :  — 

"Promote,  as  an  object  of  primary  importance,  institu- 
tions for  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge.  In  proportion 


THE   NATIONAL   BUEEAU   OF   EDUCATION.      205 

as  the  structure  of  a  government  gives  force  to  public  opin- 
ion, it  is  essential  that  public  opinion  should  be  enlight- 
ened." 

In  his  Inaugural  Address,  when  first  taking  the 
Presidential  chair,  the  elder  Adams  said,  — 

"  The  wisdom  and  generosity  of  the  legislature  in  making 
liberal  appropriations  in  money  for  the  benefit  of  schools, 
academies,  and  colleges,  is  an  equal  honor  to  them  and  to 
their  constituents,  a  proof  of  their  veneration  for  letters  and 
science,  and  a  portent  of  great  and  lasting  good  to  North 
and  South  America  and  to  the  world.  Great  is  truth — 
great  is  liberty  —  great  is  humanity  —  and  they  must  and 
will  prevail." 

Chancellor  Kent  used  this  decided  language :  — 

"  The  parent  who  sends  his  son  into  the  world  uneducated, 
defrauds  the  community  of  a  lawful  citizen,  and  bequeaths 
to  it  a  nuisance." 

I  shall  conclude  the  citation  of  opinions  with 
the  stirring  words  of  Edward  Everett :  — 

"  I  know  not  to  what  we  can  better  liken  the  strong  ap- 
petence of  the  mind  for  improvement  than  to  a  hunger  and 
thirst  after  knowledge  and  truth,  nor  how  we  can  better 
describe  the  province  of  education  than  to  say,  it  does  that 
for  the  intellect  which  is  done  for  the  body,  when  it  re- 
ceives the  care  and  nourishment  which  are  necessary  for  its 
growth,  health,  and  strength. 


206      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

"  From  this  comparison  I  think  I  derive  new  views  of  the 
importance  of  education.  It  is  now  a  solemn  duty,  a  tender, 
sacred  trust. 

"  What  1  feed  a  child's  body,  and  let  his  soul  hunger  I 
pamper  his  limbs,  and  starve  his  faculties ! 

"  Plant  the  earth,  cover  a  thousand  hills  with  your  droves 
of  cattle,  pursue  the  fish  to  their  hiding-places  in  the  sea, 
and  spread  out  your  wheat-fields  across  the  plains,  in  order 
to  supply  the  wants  of  that  body  which  will  soon  be  as 
cold  and  senseless  as  their  poorest  clod,  and  let  the  pure 
spiritual  essence  within  you,  with  all  its  glorious  capacities 
for  improvement,  languish  and  pine !  What !  build  facto- 
ries, turn  in  rivers  upon  the  water-wheels,  unchain  the  im- 
prisoned spirits  of  steam,  to  weave  a  garment  for  the  body, 
and  let  the  soul  remain  unadorned  and  naked  ! 

"  What !  send  out  your  vessels  to  the  farthest  ocean,  and 
make  battle  with  the  monsters  of  the  deep,  in  order  to  obtain 
the  means  of  lighting  up  your  dwellings  and  workshops,  and 
prolonging  the  hours  of  labor  for  the  meat  that  perisheth, 
and  permit  that  vital  spark  which  God  has  kindled,  which 
he  has  intrusted  to  our  care,  to  be  fanned  into  a  bright  and 
heavenly  flame,  —  permit  it,  I  say,  to  languish  and  go  out !  " 

It  is  remarkable  that  so  many  good  things  have 
been  said,  and  so  few  things  done,  by  our  national 
statesmen,  in  favor  of  education.  If  we  inquire 
what  has  been  done  by  the  governments  of  other 
countries  to  support  and  advance  public  educa- 
tion, we  are  compelled  to  confess  with  shame  that 


THE   NATIONAL   BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      207 

every  government  in  Christendom  has  given  a 
more  intelligent  and  effective  support  to  schools 
than  has  our  own. 

The  free  cities  of  Germany  organized  the  ear- 
liest school  systems  after  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State.  The  present  schools  of  Hamburg  have 
existed  more  than  one  thousand  years.  The  earli- 
est school-codes  were  framed  in  the  Duchy  of 
Wurtemburg  in  1565,  and  in  the  Electorate  of 
Saxony  in  1580.  Under  these  codes  were  estab- 
lished systems  of  schools,  more  perfect,  it  is 
claimed,  than  the  school  system  of  any  State  of 
the  American  Union. 

Their  systems  embraced  the  gymnasium  and 
the  university,  and  were  designed,  as  their  laws 
expressed  it,  "to  carry  youth  from  the  elements 
to  the  degree  of  culture  demanded  for  offices  in 
Church  and  State." 

The  educational  institutions  of  Prussia  are  too 
well  known  to  need  a  comment.  It  is  a  sufficient 
index  of  their  progress  and  high  character,  that 
a  late  Prussian  school-officer  said  of  his  official 
duties,  — 

"  I  promised  God  that  I  would  look  upon  every  Prussian 
peasant  child  as  a  being  who  could  complain  of  me  before 
Cod  if  T  did  not  provide  for  him  the  best  education  as  a 


208      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND    EDUCATION. 

man   and    a  Christian  which    it  was  possible  for  me  to 
provide." 

France  did  not  think  herself  dishonored  by 
learning  from  a  nation  which  she  had  lately  con- 
quered; and  when,  in  1831,  she  began  to  provide 
more  fully  for  the  education  of  her  people,  she 
sent  the  philosopher  Cousin  to  Holland  and 
Prussia  to  study  and  report  upon  the  schools 
of  those  states.  Guizot  was  made  minister  of 
public  instruction,  and  held  the  office  from  1832 
to  1837.  In  1833  the  report  of  Cousin  was  pub- 
lished, and  the  educational  system  of  France  was 
established  on  the  Prussian  model. 

No  portion  of  his  brilliant  career  reflects  more 
honor  upon  Guizot  than  his  five-years'  work  for 
the  schools  of  France.  The  fruits  of  his  labors 
were  not  lost  in  the  revolutions  that  followed. 
The  present  emperor  is  giving  his  best  efforts  to 
the  perfection  and  maintenance  of  schools,  and  is 
endeavoring  to  make  the  profession  of  the  teacher 
more  honorable  and  desirable  than  it  has  been 
hitherto. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
I  have  obtained  a  copy  of  the  last  annual  report 
of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  in  France, 


THE   NATIONAL   BUREAU   OF   EDUCATION.      209 

which  exhibits  the  present  state  of  education  in 
that  empire. 

At  the  last  enumeration  there  were  in  France, 
in  the  colleges  and  lyceums,  65,832  pupils  ;  in  the 
secondary  schools,  200,000 ;  and  in  the  primary  or 
common  schools,  4,720,234. 

Besides  the  large  amount  raised  by  local  taxa- 
tion, the  imperial  government  appropriated,  during 
the  year  1865,  2,349,051  francs  for  the  support  of 
primary  schools. 

Teaching  is  one  of  the  regular  professions  in 
France ;  and  the  government  offers  prizes,  and 
bestows  honors  upon  the  successful  instructor  of 
children.  During  the  year  1865, 1,154  prizes  were 
distributed  to  teachers  in  primary  schools. 

An  order  of  honor,  and  a  medal  worth  250 
francs,  are  awarded  to  the  best  teacher  in  each 
commune. 

After  long  and  faithful  service  in  his  profession, 
the  teacher  is  retired  on  half-pay,  and,  if  broken 
down  in  health,  is  pensioned  for  life.  In  1865, 
there  were  4,245  teachers  on  the  pension-list  of 
France.  The  minister  says  in  his  report :  "  The 
statesmen  of  France  have  determined  to  show  that 
the  country  knows  how  to  honor  those  who  serve 
her,  even  in  obscurity." 


210      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

Since  1862, 10,243  libraries  for  the  use  of  common 
schools  have  been  established ;  and  they  now  con- 
tain 1,117,352  volumes,  more  than  a  third  of  which 
have  been  furnished  by  the  imperial  government. 
Half  a  million  text-books  are  furnished  for  the  use 
of  children  who  are  too  poor  to  buy  them.  It  is 
the  policy  of  France  to  afford  the  means  of  educa- 
tion to  every  child  in  the  empire. 

When  we  compare  the  conduct  of  other  govern- 
ments with  our  own,  we  cannot  accuse  ourselves 
so  much  of  illiberality  as  of  reckless  folly  in  the 
application  of  our  liberality  to  the  support  of 
schools.  No  government  has  expended  so  much 
to  so  little  purpose.  To  fourteen  States  alone 
we  have  given  for  the  support  of  schools  83,000 
square  miles  of  land,  or  an  amount  of  territory 
nearly  equal  to  two  such  States  as  Ohio.  But 
how  has  this  bountiful  appropriation  been  applied? 
This  chapter  in  our  history  has  never  been  writ- 
ten. No  member  of  this  House  or  the  Senate,  no 
executive  officer  of  the  government,  now  knows, 
and  no  man  ever  did  know,  what  disposition  has 
been  made  of  this  immense  bounty.  This  bill 
requires  the  Commissioner  of  Education  to  report 
to  Congress  what  lands  have  been  given  to  schools, 
and  how  the  proceeds  have  been  applied.  If  we 


THE  NATIONAL  BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION.      211 

are  not  willing  to  follow  the  example  of  our 
fathers  in  giving,  let  us,  at  least,  have  the  evi- 
dence of  the  beneficial  results  of  their  liberality. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  thus  hurriedly  and  im- 
perfectly exhibited  the  magnitude  of  the  interests 
involved  in  the  education  of  American  youth  ;  the 
peculiar  condition  of  affairs  which  demand  at  this 
time  an  increase  of  our  educational  forces ;  the 
failure  of  a  majority  of  the  States  to  establish 
school  systems,  the  long  struggles  through  which 
others  have  passed  in  achieving  success ;  and  the 
humiliating  contrast  between  the  action  of  our 
government  and  those  of  other  nations  in  refer- 
ence to  education  :  but  I  cannot  close  without 
referring  to  the  bearing  of  this  measure  upon  the 
peculiar  work  of  this  Congress. 

When  the  history  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress 
is  written,  it  will  be  recorded  that  two  great  ideas 
inspired  it,  and  made  their  impress  upon  all  its 
efforts ;  viz.,  to  build  up  free  States  on  the  ruins 
of  slavery,  and  to  extend  to  every  inhabitant  of 
the  United  States  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citi- 
zenship. 

Before  the  Divine  Architect  builded  order  out 
of  chaos,  he  said,  "  Let  there  be  light."  Shall  we 
commit  the  fatal  mistake  of  building  up  free  States 


212      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

without  first  expelling  the  darkness  in  which  slave- 
ry had  shrouded  their  people  ?  Shall  we  enlarge 
the  boundaries  of  citizenship,  and  make  no  provis- 
ion to  increase  the  intelligence  of  the  citizen? 

I  share  most  fully  in  the  aspirations  of  this 
Congress,  and  give  my  most  cordial  support  to 
its  policy ;  but  I  believe  its  work  will  prove  a 
disastrous  failure  unless  it  makes  the  schoolmaster 
its  ally,  and  aids  him  in  preparing  the  children  of 
the  United  States  to  perfect  the  work  now  begun. 

The  stork  is  a  sacred  bird  in  Holland,  and  is 
protected  by  her  laws,  because  it  destroys  those 
insects  which  would  undermine  the  dikes,  and  let 
the  sea  again  overwhelm  the  rich  fields  of  the 
Netherlands.  Shall  this  government  do  nothing 
to  foster  and  strengthen  those  educational  agencies 
which  alone  can  shield  the  coming  generations 
from  ignorance  and  vice,  and  make  it  the  impreg- 
nable bulwark  of  liberty  and  law  ? 

I  know  that  this  is  not  a  measure  which  is  likely 
to  attract  the  attention  of  those  whose  chief  work 
is  to  watch  the  political  movements  that  affect  the 
results  of  nominating  conventions  and  elections. 
The  mere  politician  will  see  in  it  nothing  valuable, 
for  the  millions  of  children  to  be  benefited  by  it 
can  give  him  no  votes.  But  I  appeal  to  those 


THE   NATIONAL  BUREAU  OP  EDUCATION.      213 

who  care  more  for  the  future  safety  and  glory  of 
this  nation  than  for  any  mere  temporary  advan- 
tage, to  aid  in  giving  to  education  the  public 
recognition  and  active  support  of  the  Federal 
Government. 


n. 

Natumal  Sto  to  lEtwcatum. 

SPEECH  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF   REPRESENTATIVES, 
FEB.  6,  1872. 


n. 

NATIONAL  AID  TO  EDUCATION.1 

"  The  preservation  of  the  means  of  knowledge  among  the 
lowest  ranks  is  of  more  importance  to  the  public  than  all  the 
property  of  all  the  rich  men  in  the  country."  —  JOHN  ADAMS'S 
WORKS,  Vol.  III.,  p.  457. 

"  That  all  education  should  be  in  the  hands  of  a  centralized 
authority,  .  .  .  and  be  consequently  all  framed  on  the  same 
model,  and  directed  to  the  perpetuation  of  the  same  type,  is  a 
state  of  things,  which,  instead  of  becoming  more  acceptable,  will 
assuredly  be  more  repugnant  to  mankind,  with  every  step  of 
their  progress,  in  the  unfettered  exercise  of  their  highest  facul- 
ties."—  "  The  Positive  Philosophy  of  Auguste  Comte,"  p.  92:  JOHN 
STUART  MILL. 

"A  /TR.  SPEAKER,  —  In  the  few  minutes  given 
-^  -*-  me,  I  shall  address  myself  to  two  questions. 
The  first  is :  What  do  we  propose  by  this  bill  to 
give  to  the  cause  of  education  ?  and  the  second  is : 
How  do  we  propose  to  give  it  ?  Is  the  gift  itself 
wise  ?  and  is  the  mode  in  which  we  propose  to  give 

1  The  House  had  under  consideration  House  Bill  No.  1,043, 
"  To  establish  an  Educational  Fund,  and  to  apply  the  Proceeds 
of  the  Public  Lands  to  the  Education  of  the  People." 

217 


218      PRESIDENT    GAKFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

it  wise  ?     This  arrangement  will  include  all  I  have 
to  say. 

And,  first,  we  propose,  without  any  change  in 
the  present  land  policy,  to  give  the  net  proceeds 
of  the  public  lands  to  the  cause  of  education. 
During  the  last  fifteen  years  these  proceeds  have 
amounted  to  a  little  more  than  thirty-three  million 
dollars,  or  one  per  cent  of  the  entire  revenues  of 
the  United  States  for  that  period.  The  gift  is 
not  great ;  but  yet,  in  one  view  of  the  case,  it  is 
princely.  To  dedicate  for  the  future  a  fund 
which  is  now  one  per  cent  of  the  revenues  of  the 
United  States,  to  the  cause  of  education,  is,  to 
my  mind,  a  great  thought,  and  I  am  glad  to  give 
it  my  indorsement.  It  seems  to  me,  that,  in  this 
act  of  giving,  we  almost  copy  its  prototype  in 
what  God  himself  has  done  on  this  great  conti- 
nent of  ours.  In  the  centre  of  its  greatest 
breadth,  where  otherwise  there  might  be  a  desert 
forever,  he  has  planted  a  chain  of  the  greatest 
lakes  on  the  earth;  and  the  exhalations  arising 
from  their  pure  waters  every  day  come  down  in 
gracious  showers,  and  make  that  a  blooming 
garden  which  otherwise  might  be  a  desert  waste. 
It  is  proposed  that  the  proceeds  arising  from  the 
sale  of  our  great  wilderness  lands,  like  the  dew, 


NATIONAL  AID   TO   EDUCATION.  219 

shall  fall  forever,  not  upon  the  lands  but  upon 
the  minds  of  the  children  of  the  nation,  giving 
them,  for  all  time  to  come,  all  the  blessing  and 
growth  and  greatness  that  education  can  afford. 
That  thought,  I  say  it  again,  is  a  great  one, 
worthy  of  a  great  nation ;  and  this  country  will 
remember  the  man  who  formulated  it  into  lan- 
guage, and  will  remember  the  Congress  that  made 
it  law. 

The  other  point  is  one  of  even  greater  practical 
value  and  significance  just  now  than  this  that  I 
have  referred  to.  It  is  this:  How  is  this  great 
gift  to  be  distributed?  We  propose  to  give  it, 
Mr.  Speaker,  through  our  American  system  of 
education ;  and,  in  giving  it,  we  do  not  propose 
to  mar  in  the  least  degree  the  harmony  and 
beauty  of  that  system.  If  we  did,  I  should  be 
compelled  to  give  my  voice  and  vote  against  the 
measure;  and  here  and  now,  when  we  are  in- 
augurating this  policy,  I  desire  to  state  for  myself, 
and,  as  I  believe,  for  many  who  sit  around  me, 
that  we  do  here  solemnly  protest  that  this  gift  is 
not  to  destroy  or  disturb,  but  it  is  rather  to  be 
used  through  and  as  a  part  of,  and  to  be  wholly 
subordinated  to,  what  I  venture  to  call  our  great 
American  system  of  education.  On  this  question 


220      PBESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

I  have  been  compelled  heretofore  to  differ  with 
many  friends  of  education,  here  and  elsewhere,  — 
many  who  have  thought  it  might  be  wise  for  Con- 
gress, in  certain  contingencies,  to  take  charge  of 
the  system  of  education  in  the  States.  I  will  not 
now  discuss  the  constitutional  aspe'cts  of  that 
question ;  but  I  desire  to  say  that  all  the  philoso- 
phy of  our  educational  system  forbids  that  we 
should  take  such  a  course.  And,  in  the  few  mo- 
ments awarded  to  me,  I  wish  to  make  an  appeal 
for  our  system  as  a  whole  as  against  any  other 
known  to  me.  We  look  sometimes  with  great  ad- 
miration at  a  government  like  Germany,  that  can 
command  the  light  of  its  education  to  shine  every- 
where, that  can  enforce  its  school-laws  everywhere 
throughout  the  empire.  Under  our  system  we  do 
not  rejoice  in  that,  but  we  rather  rejoice  that  here 
two  forces  play  with  all  their  vast  power  upon 
our  system  of  education.  The  first  is  that  of  the 
local,  municipal  power  under  our  State  govern- 
ments. There  is  the  centre  of  responsibility. 
There  is  the  chief  educational  power.  There  can 
be  enforced  Luther's  great  thought  of  placing  on 
magistrates  the  duty  of  educating  children. 

Luther  was  the  first  to  perceive  that  Christian 
schools  were  an  absolute  necessity.     In  a  celebrat- 


NATIONAL   AID  TO   EDUCATION.  221 

ed  paper  addressed  to  the  municipal  councillors 
of  the  empire  in  1524,  he  demanded  the  establish- 
ment of  schools  in  all  the  villages  of  Germany. 
To  tolerate  ignorance  was,  in  the  energetic  lan- 
guage of  the  reformer,  to  make  common  cause 
with  the  Devil.  The  father  of  a  family  who 
abandoned  his  children  to  ignorance  was  a  con- 
summate rascal.  Addressing  the  German  authori- 
ties, he  said,  — 

"  Magistrates,  remember  that  God  formally  commands 
you  to  instruct  children.  This  divine  commandment  par- 
ents have  transgressed  by  indolence,  by  lack  of  intelligence, 
and  because  of  overwork. 

"  The  duty  devolves  upon  you,  magistrates,  to  call  fathers 
to  their  duty,  and  to  prevent  the  return  of  these  evils  which 
we  suffer  to-day.  Give  attention  to  your  children.  Many 
parents  are  like  ostriches,  content  to  have  laid  an  egg,  but 
caring  for  it  no  longer. 

"  Now,  that  which  constitutes  the  prosperity  of  a  city  is 
not  its  treasures,  its  strong  walls,  its  beautiful  mansions, 
and  its  brilliant  decorations.  The  real  wealth  of  a  city,  its 
safety  and  its  force,  is  an  abundance  of  citizens,  instructed, 
honest,  and  cultivated.  If  in  our  days  we  rarely  meet  such 
citizens,  whose  fault  is  it,  if  not  yours,  magistrates,  who 
have  allowed  our  youth  to  grow  up  like  neglected  shrub- 
bery in  the  forest? 

"  Ignorance  is  more  dangerous  for  a  people  than  the 
armies  of  an  enemy." 


222      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

After  quoting  this  passage  from  Luther,  La- 
boulaye,  in  his  eloquent  essay  entitled  "  L'Etat 
et  ses  Limites," l 


"  This  familiar  and  true  eloquence  was  not  lost.  There 
is  not  a  Protestant  country  which  has  not  placed  in  the 
front  rank  of  its  duties  the  establishment  and  maintenance 
of  popular  schools." 

The  duties  enjoined  in  these  great  utterances 
of  Luther  are  recognized  to  the  fullest  extent  by 
the  American  system.  But  they  are  recognized 
as  belonging  to  the  authorities  of  the  State,  the 
county,  the  township,  the  local  communities. 
There  these  obligations  may  be  urged  with  all 
the  strength  of  their  high  sanctions.  There  may 
be  brought  to  bear  all  the  patriotism,  all  the  mo- 
rality, all  the  philanthropy,  all  the  philosophy,  of 
our  people  ;  and  there  it  is  brought  to  bear  in  its 
noblest  and  best  forms. 

But  there  is  another  force,  even  greater  than 
that  of  the  State  and  the  local  governments.  It 
is  the  force  of  private  voluntary  enterprise,  —  that 
force  which  has-  built  up  the  multitude  of  private 
schools,,  academies,  and  colleges  throughout  the 
United  States,  not  always  wisely,  but  always 

i  Pp.  204,  205. 


NATIONAL   AID   TO  EDUCATION.  223 

with  enthusiasm  and  wonderful  energy.  I  say, 
therefore,  that  our  local  self-government,  joined 
to  and  co-operating  with  private  enterprise,  has 
made  the  American  system  of  education  what 
it  is. 

In  further  illustration  of  its  merits,  I  beg  leave 
to  allude  to  a  few  facts  of  great  significance. 
The  governments  of  Europe  are  now  beginning 
to  see  that  our  system  is  better  and  more  effi- 
cient than  theirs.  The  public  mind  of  England 
is  now,  and  has  been  for  several  years,  profoundly 
moved  on  the  subject  of  education.  Several 
commissioners  have  lately  been  sent  by  the  Brit- 
ish Government  -to  examine  the  school  systems 
of  other  countries,  and  lay  before  Parliament 
the  results  of  their  investigations,  so  as  to  enable 
that  body  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  other 
nations. 

Rev.  J.  Frazier,  one  of  the  assistant  commis- 
sioners appointed  for  this  purpose,  visited  this 
country  in  1865,  and  in  the  following  year  made 
his  report  to  Parliament.  While  he  found  much 
to  criticise  in  our  system  of  education,  he  did 
not  withhold  his  expressions  of  astonishment  at 
the  important  part  which  private  enterprise 
played  in  our  system.  In  concluding  his  report, 


224      PEESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION". 

he  speaks  of  the  United  States  as  "a  nation  of 
which  it  is  no  flattery  or  exaggeration  to  say,  that 
it  is,  if  not  the  most  highly,  yet  certainly  the 
most  generally,  educated  and  intelligent  people 
on  the  globe." 

But  a  more  valuable  report  was  delivered  to 
Parliament  in  1868,  by  Matthew  Arnold,  one  of 
the  most  cultivated  and  profound  thinkers  of 
England.  He  was  sent  by  Parliament  to  examine 
the  schools  and  universities  of  the  Continent ; 
and  after  visiting  all  the  leading  states  of 
Europe,  and  making  himself  thoroughly  familiar 
with  their  system  of  education,  he  delivered  a 
most  searching  and  able  report.  In  the  conclud- 
ing chapter,  he  discusses  the  wants  of  England 
on  the  subject  of  education.  No  one  who  reads 
that  chapter  can  fail  to  admire  the  boldness  and 
power  with  which  he  points  out  the  chief  ob- 
stacles to  popular  education  in  England.  He 
exhibits  the  significant  fact,  that,  while  during 
the  last  half-century  there  has  been  a  general 
transformation  in  the  civil  organization  of  Euro- 
pean governments,  England,  with  all  her  liberty 
and  progress,  is  shackled  with  what  he  calls  a 
civil  organization,  which  is,  from  the  top  to  the 
bottom  of  it,  not  modern.  He  says,  — 


NATIONAL  AID   TO   EDUCATION.  225 

"  Transform  she  must,  unless  she  means  to  come  at  last 
to  the  same  sentence  as  the  church  of  Sardis :  '  Thou  hast 
a  name  that  thou  livest,  and  art  dead.' 

"  However,  on  no  part  of  this  immense  task  of  transfor- 
mation have  I  now  to  touch,  except  on  that  part  which 
relates  to  education;  but  this  part,  no  doubt,  is  the  most 
important  of  all,  and  it  is  the  part  whose  happy  accomplish- 
ment may  render  that  of  all  the  rest,  instead  of  being 
troubled  and  difficult,  gradual  and  easy.  .  .  . 

"Obligatory  instruction  is  talked  of.  But  what  is  the 
capital  difficulty  in  the  way  of  obligatory  instruction,  or, 
indeed,  any  national  system  of  instruction,  in  this  country  ? 
It  is  this  :  that,  the  moment  the  working-class  of  this  coun- 
try have  this  question  of  instruction  really  brought  home  to 
them,  their  self-respect  will  make  them  demand,  like  the 
working-classes  on  the  Continent,  public  schools,  and  not 
schools  which  the  clergyman  or  the  squire  or  the  mill-owner 
calls  '  my  school ! '  And  what  is  the  capital  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  giving  them  public  schools?  It  is  this:  that  the 
public  school  for  the  people  must  rest  upon  the  municipal 
organization  of  the  country.  In  France,  Germany,  Italy, 
Switzerland,  the  public  elementary  school  has,  and  exists 
by  having,  the  commune,  and  the  municipal  government  of 
the  commune,  as  its  foundations ;  and  it  could  not  exist  with- 
out them.  But  we,  in  England,  have  our  municipal  organ- 
ization still  to  get :  the  country  districts  with  us  have  at 
present  only  the  feudal  and  ecclesiastical  organization  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  or  of  France  before  the  Revolution.  .  .  . 

"  The  real  preliminary  to  an  effective  system  of  popular 
education  is,  in  fact,  to  provide  the  country  with  an  effective 


226      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

municipal  organization ;  and  here,  then,  is,  at  the  outset,  an 
illustration  of  what  I  said, — that  modern  societies  need  a 
civil  organization  which  is  modern." 

In  the  early  part  of  1870  a  report  was  made  to 
the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  by  Mr.  C. 
Hippeau,  a  man  of  great  learning,  and  who,  in  the 
previous  year,  had  been  ordered  by  the  French 
Government  to  visit  the  United  States,  and  make 
a  careful  study  of  our  system  of  public  education. 
In  summing  up  his  conclusions  at  the  end  of  his 
report,  he  expresses  opinions  which  are  remark- 
able for  their  boldness,  when  we  remember  the 
character  of  the  French  government  at  that  time ; 
and  his  recommendations  have  a  most  significant 
application  to  the  principle  under  consideration. 
I  translate  his  concluding  paragraphs :  — 

"  What  impresses  me  most  strongly  as  the  result  of  this 
study  of  public  instruction  in  the  United  States  is  the  ad- 
mirable power  of  private  enterprise  in  a  country  where  the 
citizens  early  adopted  the  habit  of  foreseeing  their  own 
wants  for  themselves ;  of  meeting  together  and  acting  in 
concert ;  of  combining  their  means  of  action ;  of  determin- 
ing the  amount  of  pecuniary  contribution  which  they  will 
impose  upon  themselves,  and  of  regulating  its  use;  and, 
finally,  of  choosing  administrators  who  shall  render  them  au 
account  of  the  resources  placed  at  their  disposal,  and  of  the 
use  which  they  may  make  of  their  authority. 


NATIONAL   AID  TO  EDUCATION.  227 

"  The  marvellous  progress  made  in  the  United  States 
during  the  last  twenty  years  would  have  been  impossible 
if  the  national  life,  instead  of  being  manifested  on  all  points 
of  the  surface,  had  been  concentrated  in  a  capital,  under  the 
pressure  of  a  strongly  organized  administration,  which,  hold- 
ing the  people  under  constant  tutelage,  wholly  relieved  them 
from  the  care  of  thinking  and  acting  by  themselves  and  for 
themselves.  Will  France  enter  upon  that  path  of  decen- 
tralization, which  will  infallibly  result  in  giving  a  scope 
now  unknown  to  all  her  vital  forces  and  to  the  admirable 
resources  which  she  possesses?  In  what  especially  con- 
cerns public  instruction,  shall  we  see  her  multiplying,  as 
in  America,  those  free  associations,  those  generous  dona- 
tions, which  will  enable  us  to  place  public  instruction  on 
the  broadest  foundation,  and  to  revive  in  our  provinces 
the  old  universities  that  will  become  more  flourishing 
as  the  citizens  shall  interest  themselves  directly  in  their 
progress  ? 

"To  accomplish  this,  it  will  also  be  necessary  that 
governments,  appreciating  the  wants  of  their  epoch,  shall 
with  good  grace  relinquish  a  part  of  the  duties  now  imposed 
upon  them,  and  aid  the  people  in  supporting  the  rigid 
regime  of  liberty,  by  enlarging  the  powers  of  the  muni- 
cipal councils  and  of  the  councils  of  the  departments,  by 
favoring  associations  and  public  meetings,  by  opening  the 
freest  field  to  the  examination  and  discussion  of  national 
interests;  in  short,  by  deserving  the  eulogy  addressed 
by  a  man  of  genius  to  a  great  minister  of  France :  '  Mon- 
seigneur,  you  have  labored  ten  years  to  make  yourself 
useless.'" 


228      PRESIDENT    GAKFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

I  have  made  these  citations  to  show  how  strong- 
ly the  public  thought  of  Europe  is  moving  toward 
our  system  of  public  education,  as  better  and 
freer  than  theirs.  I  do  not  now  discuss  the 
broader  political  question  of  State  and  municipal 
government  as  contrasted  with  centralized  govern- 
ment. I  am  considering  what  is  the  best  system 
of  organizing  the  educational  work  of  a  nation, 
not  from  the  political  standpoint  alone,  but  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  schoolhouse  itself.  This 
work  of  public  education  partakes  in  a  peculiar 
way  of  the  spirit  of  the  human  mind  in  its  efforts 
for  culture.  The  mind  must  be  as  free  from 
extraneous  control  as  possible,  —  must  work  under 
the  inspiration  of  its  own  desires  for  knowledge ; 
and,  while  instructors  and  books  are  necessary 
helps,  the  fullest  and  highest  success  must  spring 
from  the  power  of  self-help. 

So  the  best  system  of  education  is  that  which 
draws  its  chief  support  from  the  voluntary  effort 
of  the  community,  from  the  individual  efforts  of 
citizens,  and  from  those  burdens  of  taxation  which 
they  voluntarily  impose  upon  themselves.  The 
assistance  proposed  in  this  bill  is  to  be  given 
through  the  channels  of  this,  our  American  sys- 
tem. The  amount  proposed  is  large  enough  to 


NATIONAL   AID   TO  EDUCATION.  229 

stimulate  to  greater  effort  and  to  general  emula- 
tion the  different  States  and  the  local  school  au- 
thorities, but  not  large  enough  to  carry  the  system 
on,  and  to  weaken  all  these  forces  by  making  the 
friends  of  education  feel  that  the  work  is  done  for 
them  without  their  own  effort.  Government  shall 
be  only  a  help  to  them,  rather  than  a  commander, 
in  the  work  of  education. 

In  conclusion,  I  say,  that,  in  the  pending  bill, 
we  disclaim  any  control  over  the  educational  sys- 
tem of  the  States.  We  only  require  reports  of 
what  they  do  with  our  bounty ;  and  those  reports, 
brought  here  and  published  for  the  information 
of  the  people,  will  spread  abroad  the  light,  and 
awaken  the  enthusiasm  and  emulation  of  our  peo- 
ple. This  policy  is  in  harmony  with  the  act  of 
1867  creating  the  Bureau  of  Education,  and  whose 
fruits  have  already  been  so  abundant  in  good  re- 
sults. I  hope  that  the  House  will  set  its  seal 
of  approval  on  our  American  system  of  educa- 
tion, and  will  adopt  this  mode  of  advancing  and 
strengthening  it. 


HI. 

Suffrage  anto 


EXTRACT    FROM    "THE    FUTURE    OF   THE    REPUBLIC:    ITS 

DANGERS  AND  HOPES."    AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED 

BEFORE  THE  LITERARY  SOCIETIES  OF 

WESTERN  RESERVE  COLLEGE, 

HUDSON,  O.,  JULY  2,  1873. 


m. 

SUFFRAGE  AND  SCHOOLS. 

A  FTER  all,  territory  is  but  the  body  of  a 
•*-*•  nation.  The  people  who  inhabit  its  hills 
and  its  valleys  are  its  soul,  its  spirit,  its  life.  In 
them  dwells  its  hope  of  immortality.  Among 
them,  if  anywhere,  are  to  be  found  its  chief 
elements  of  destruction.  And  this  leads  me  to 
consider  an  alleged  danger  to  our  institutions, 
which,  if  well  founded,  would  be  radical  and 
fatal.  I  refer  to  the  allegation  that  universal 
suffrage  as  the  supreme  source  of  political  au- 
thority is  a  fatal  mistake.  When  I  hear  this 
proposition  urged,  I  feel,  as  most  Americans 
doubtless  do,  that  it  is  a  kind  of  moral  treason  to 
listen  to  it,  and  that  to  entertain  it  would  be  po- 
litical atheism.  That  the  consent  of  the  governed 
is  the  only  true  source  of  national  authority,  and  is 
the  safest  and  firmest  foundation  on  which  to  build 
a  government,  is  the  most  fundamental  axiom  of 
our  political  faith.  But  we  must  not  forget  that 

233 


234      PRESIDENT    GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

a  majority  —  perhaps  a  large  majority  —  of  the 
thinkers,  writers,  and  statesmen  of  Christendom 
declare  that  our  axiom  is  no  axiom ;  indeed,  is 
not  true,  but  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  —  a  fatal 
heresy. 

At  the  risk  of  offending  our  American  pride,  I 
shall  quote  a  few  paragraphs  from  what  is  prob- 
ably the  most  formidable  indictment  ever  penned 
against  the  democratic  principle.  It  was  written 
by  the  late  Lord  Macaulay,  a  profound  student  of 
society  and  government,  and  a  man  who  on  most 
subjects  entertained  broad  and  liberal  views. 
Millions  of  Americans  have  read  and  admired  his 
History  and  Essays  ;  but  only  a  few  thousands 
have  read  his  brief  but  remarkable  letter  of  1857, 
in  which  he  discusses  the  future  of  our  govern- 
ment. We  are  so  confident  of  our  position,  that 
we  seldom  care  to  debate  it. 

The  letter  was  addressed  to  the  Hon.  H.  S. 
Randall  of  New  York,  acknowledging  the  receipt 
of  a  copy  of  that  gentleman's  "  Life  of  Jefferson." 
I  quote  a  few  paragraphs  :  — 

"  LONDON,  May  23, 1857. 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  You  are  surprised  to  learn  that  I  have  not 
a  high  opinion  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  I  am  surprised  at  your 
surprise.  I  am  certain  that  I  never  wrote  a  line,  and  that  I 


SUFFRAGE   AND   SCHOOLS.  235 

never  in  parliament,  in  conversation,  or  even  on  the  hustings, 
— •  a  place  where  it  is  the  fashion  to  court  the  populace,  — 
uttered  a  word  indicating  the  opinion  that  the  supreme 
authority  in  a  state  ought  to  be  intrusted  to  the  majority  of 
citizens  told  by  the  head ;  in  other  words,  to  the  poorest  and 
most  ignorant  pail  of  society.  I  have  long  been  convinced 
that  institutions  purely  democratic  must,  sooner  or  later, 
destroy  liberty  or  civilization,  or  both. 

"  In  Europe,  where  the  population  is  dense,  the  effect  of 
such  institutions  would  be  almost  instantaneous.  What 
happened  lately  in  France  is  an  example.  In  1848  a  pure 
democracy  was  established  there.  During  a  short  time  there 
was  a  strong  reason  to  expect  a  general  spoliation,  a  national 
bankruptcy,  a  new  partition  of  the  soil,  a  maximum  of 
prices,  a  ruinous  load  of  taxation  laid  on  the  rich  for  the 
purpose  of  supporting  the  poor  in  idleness.  Such  a  system 
would,  in  twenty  years,  have  made  France  as  poor  and  as 
barbarous  as  the  France  of  the  Carlovingians.  Happily  the 
danger  was  averted  ;  and  now  there  is  a  despotism,  a  silent 
tribune,  an  enslaved  press,  liberty  is  gone,  but  civilization 
has  been  saved.  I  have  not  the  smallest  doubt,  that  if  we 
had  a  purely  democratic  government  here  the  effect  would 
be  the  same.  Either  the  poor  would  plunder  the  rich,  and 
civilization  would  perish,  or  order  and  property  would  be 
saved  by  a  strong  military  government,  and  liberty  would 
perish.  You  may  think  that  your  country  enjoys  an  exemp- 
tion from  these  evils.  I  will  frankly  own  to  you  that  I  am 
of  a  very  different  opinion.  Your  fate  I  believe  to  be  certain, 
though  it  is  deferred  by  a  physical  cause.  As  long  as  you 
have  a  boundless  extent  of  fertile  and  unoccupied  land,  your 


236      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

laboring  population  will  be  far  more  at  ease  than  the  labor- 
ing population  of  the  Old  World  ;  and  while  that  is  the  case 
the  Jeffersonian  policy  may  continue  to  exist  without  caus- 
ing any  fatal  calamity.  But  the  time  will  come  when  New 
England  will  be  as  thickly  peopled  as  Old  England.  Wages 
will  be  as  low,  and  will  fluctuate  as  much,  with  you  as  with 
us.  You  will  have  your  Manchesters  and  Birminghams. 
Hundreds  and  thousands  of  artisans  will  assuredly  be  some- 
tunes  out  of  work.  Then  your  institutions  will  be  fairly 
brought  to  the  test.  Distress  everywhere  makes  the  laborer 
mutinous  and  discontented,  and  inclines  him  to  listen  with 
eagerness  to  agitators,  who  tell  him  that  it  is  a  monstrous 
iniquity  that  one  man  should  have  a  million  while  another 
cannot  get  a  full  meal.  In  bad  years  there  is  plenty  of 
grumbling  here,  and  sometimes  a  little  rioting.  But  it  mat- 
ters little,  for  here  the  sufferers  are  not  the  rulers.  The 
supreme  power  is  in  the  hands  of  a  class,  numerous  indeed, 
but  select,  of  an  educated  class,  of  a  class  which  is,  and 
knows  itself  to  be,  deeply  interested  in  the  security  of 
property  and  the  maintenance  of  order.  Accordingly  the 
malcontents  are  firmly  yet  gently  restrained.  The  bad 
time  is  got  over  without  robbing  the  wealthy  to  relieve  the 
indigent.  The  springs  of  national  prosperity  soon  begin 
to  flow  again;  work  is  plentiful;  wages  rise,  and  all  is 
tranquillity  and  cheerfulness.  I  have  seen  England  three 
or  four  times  pass  through  such  critical  seasons  as  I  have 
described.  Through  such  seasons  the  United  States  will 
have  to  pass,  in  the  course  of  the  next  century,  if  not  of 
this.  How  will  you  pass  through  them?  I  heartily  wish 
you  a  good  deliverance.  But  my  reason  and  my  wishes  are 


SUFFRAGE   AND    SCHOOLS.  237 

at  war,  and  I  cannot  help  foreboding  the  worst.  It  is  quite 
plain  that  your  government  will  never  be  able  to  restrain  a 
distressed  and  discontented  majority.  For  with  you  the 
majority  is  the  government,  and  has  the  rich,  who  are  always 
a  minority,  absolutely  at  its  mercy.  The  day  will  come 
when,  iu  the  State  of  New  York,  a  multitude  of  people,  none 
of  whom  has  had  more  than  half  a  breakfast,  or  expects  to 
have  more  than  half  a  dinner,  will  choose  a  legislature.  Is 
it  possible  to  doubt  what  sort  of  legislature  will  be  chosen? 
On  one  side  is  a  statesman  preaching  patience,  respect  for 
vested  rights,  strict  observance  of  public  faith.  On  the 
other  is  a  demagogue  ranting  about  the  tyranny  of  capitalists 
and  usurers,  and  asking  why  anybody  should  be  permitted 
to  drink  champagne  and  to  ride  in  a  carriage  while  thousands 
of  honest  people  are  in  want  of  necessaries  ?  Which  of  the 
two  candidates  is  likely  to  be  preferred  by  a  workingman 
who  hears  his  children  cry  for  bread?  I  seriously  appre- 
hend that  you  will,  in  some  such  season  of  adversity  as  I 
have  described,  do  things  which  will  prevent  prosperity  from 
returning ;  that  you  will  act  like  people  in  a  year  of  scarcity, 
devour  all  the  seed-corn,  and  thus  make  the  next  year  a  year, 
not  of  scarcity,  but  of  absolute  famine.  There  will  be,  I 
fear,  spoliation.  The  spoliation  will  increase  distress.  The 
distress  will  produce  fresh  spoliation.  There  is  nothing  to 
stay  you.  Your  Constitution  is  all  sail  and  no  anchor.  As 
I  said  before,  when  society  has  entered  on  this  downward 
progress,  either  civilization  or  liberty  must  perish.  Either 
some  Caesar  or  Xapoleon  will  seize  the  reins  of  government 
with  a  strong  hand,  or  your  Republic  will  be  as  fearfully 
plundered  and  laid  waste  by  barbarians  in  the  twentieth 


238      PRESIDENT  GAEFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

century  as  the  Roman  empire  was  in  the  fifth ;  with  this 
difference,  that  the  Huns  and  Vandals  who  ravaged  the 
Roman  empire  came  from  without,  and  that  your  Huns 
and  Vandals  will  have  been  engendered  within  your  country 
by  your  own  institutions. 

"Thinking  thus,  of  course  I  cannot  reckon  Jefferson 
among  the  benefactors  of  mankind." 

Certainly  this  letter  contains  food  for  serious 
thought,  and  it  would  be  idle  to  deny  that  the 
writer  has  pointed  out  what  may  become  serious 
dangers  in  our  future.  But  the  evils  he  complains 
of  are  by  no  means  confined  to  democratic  govern- 
ments, nor  do  they  in  the  main  grow  out  of  popular 
suffrage.  If  they  do,  England  herself  has  taken 
a  dangerous  step  since  Macaulay  wrote.  Ten 
years  after  the  date  of  this  letter,  she  extended 
the  suffrage  to  eight  hundred  thousand  of  her 
workingmen,  —  a  class  hitherto  ignored  in  politics; 
and  still  later  we  have  extended  it  to  an  ignorant 
and  lately  enslaved  population  of  more  than  four 
millions.  Whether  for  weal  or  for  woe,  enlarged 
suffrage  is  the  tendency  of  all  modern  nations.  I 
venture  the  declaration  that  this  opinion  of  Mac- 
aulay is  vulnerable  on  several  grounds. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  based  upon  a  belief  from 
which  few  if  any  British  writers  have  been  able  to 


SUFFRAGE   AND   SCHOOLS.  239 

emancipate  themselves ;  viz.,  the  belief  that  man- 
kind are  born  into  permanent  classes,  and  that  in 
the  main  they  must  live,  work,  and  die  in  the  fixed 
class  or  condition  in  which  they  were  born.  It  is 
hardly  possible  for  a  man  reared  in  an  aristocracy 
like  that  of  England  to  eliminate  this  conviction 
from  his  mind,  for  the  British  empire  is  built  upon 
it.  Their  theory  of  national  stability  is,  that  there 
must  be  a  permanent  class  which  shall  hold  in 
their  own  hands  so  much  of  the  wealth,  the  privi- 
lege, and  the  political  power  of  the  kingdom,  that 
they  can  compel  the  admiration  and  obedience  of 
all  other  classes. 

At  several  periods  of  English  history,  there  have 
been  serious  encroachments  upon  this  doctrine  ; 
but,  on  the  whole,  British  phlegm  has  held  to  it 
sturdily,  and  still  maintains  it.  The  great  voice- 
less class  of  day-laborers  have  made  but  little 
headway  against  the  doctrine.  The  editor  of  a 
leading  British  magazine  told  me  a  few  years  ago, 
that,  in  twenty-five  years  of  observation,  he  had 
never  known  a  mere  farm-laborer  in  England  to 
rise  above  his  class.1  Some,  he  said,  had  done  so 

1  This   statement  made  a  deep  impression  upon  President 

Garfield's  mind,  and  he  often  referred  to  it  in  speaking  of  the 

P  relative  opportunities  that  England  and  America  offer  to  the 


240      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

in  manufactures,  some  in  trade ;  but  in  mere  farm- 
labor,  not  one.  The  government  of  a  country 
where  such  a  fact  is  possible  has  much  to  answer 
for. 

We  deny  the  justice  or  the  necessity  of  keeping 
ninety-nine  of  the  population  in  perpetual  poverty 
and  obscurity  in  order  that  the  hundredth  may  be 
rich  and  powerful  enough  to  hold  the  ninety-nine 
in  subjection.  Where  such  permanent  classes 
exist,  the  conflict  of  which  Macaulay  speaks  is  in- 
evitable. And  why?  Not  that  men  are  inclined  to 
fight  the  class  above  them ;  but  they  fight  any  artifi- 
cial barrier  which  makes  it  impossible  for  them  to 
enter  that  higher  class,  and  become  a  part  of  it. 
We  point  to  the  fact,  that  in  this  country  there  are 
no  classes  in  the  British  sense  of  that  word,  —  no 
impassable  barriers  of  caste.  Now  that  slavery  is 

boy  born  of  a  lowly  condition.  His  own  career  is  an  impossibility 
in  England.  Said  his  Grace  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in 
his  Memorial  Address,  delivered  at  the  Church  of  St.  Mary's-in- 
the-Fields,  London,  Sept.  26,  — 

"All  this  was  calculated  to  enlist  our  sympathy;  and  then 
we  were  taught  to  trace  a  career  such  as  England  knows  nothing 
of,  and  to  wonder  at  the  mode  in  which  great  men  are  formed  in 
a  country  so  like  and  yet  so  dissimilar  from  our  own." 

His  Grace  then  gave  a  rapid  summary  of  the  President's 
career,  —  the  scholar,  master,  student,  preacher,  soldier,  legisla- 
tor, and  President.  ^ 


SUFFRAGE   AND   SCHOOLS.  241 

abolished,  we  can  truly  say,  that  through  our  po- 
litical society  there  run  no  fixed  horizontal  strata 
through  which  none  can  pass  upward.  Our  society 
resembles  rather  the  waves  of  the  ocean,  whose 
every  drop  may  move  freely  among  its  fellows, 
and  may  rise  toward  the  light,  until  it  flashes  on 
the  crest  of  the  highest  wave. 

Again,  in  depicting  the  dangers  of  universal 
suffrage,  Macaulay  leaves  wholly  out  of  the  account 
the  great  counterbalancing  force  of  universal  edu- 
cation. He  contemplates  a  government  delivered 
over  to  a  vast  multitude  of  ignorant,  vicious  men, 
who  have  learned  no  self-control,  who  have  never 
comprehended  the  national  life,  and  who  will  wield 
the  ballot  solely  for  personal  and  selfish  ends.  If 
this  were  indeed  the  necessary  condition  of  demo- 
cratic communities,  it  would  be  difficult,  perhaps 
impossible,  to  escape  the  logic  of  Macaulay's  letter. 
And  here  is  a  real  peril,  —  the  danger  that  we  shall 
rely  upon  the  mere  extent  of  the  suffrage  as  a 
national  safeguard.  We  cannot  safely,  even  for  a 
moment,  lose  sight  of  the  quality  of  the  suffrage, 
which  is  more  important  than  its  quantity. 

We  are  apt  to  be  deluded  into  false  security  by 
political  catch-words,  devised  to  flatter  rather  than 
instruct.  We  have  happily  escaped  the  dogma  of 


242      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

the  divine  right  of  kings.  Let  us  not  fall  into  the 
equally  pernicious  error  that  multitude  is  divine 
because  it  is  a  multitude.  The  words  of  our  great 
publicist  —  the  late  Dr.  Lieber,  whose  faith  hi 
republican  liberty  was  undaunted  —  should  never 
be  forgotten.  In  discussing  the  doctrine  of  "  Vox 
populi,  vox  Dei,"  he  said,  — 

"Woe  to  the  country  in  which  political  hypocrisy  first 
calls  the  people  almighty,  then  teaches  that  the  voice  of  the 
people  is  divine,  then  pretends  to  take  a  mere  clamor  for  the 
true  voice  of  the  people,  and  lastly  gets  up  the  desired 
clamor ! " 1 

This  sentence  ought  to  be  read  in  every  political 
caucus :  it  would  make  an  interesting  and  signifi- 
cant preamble  to  most  of  our  political  platforms. 
It  is  only  when  the  people  speak  truth  and  justice 
that  their  voice  can  be  called  the  "  voice  of  God." 
Our  faith  in  the  democratic  principle  rests  upon 
the  belief  that  intelligent  men  will  see  that  their 
highest  political  good  is  in  liberty  regulated  by 
just  and  equal  laws,  and  that,  in  the  distribution 
of  political  power,  it  is  safe  to  follow  the  maxim, 
"  Each  for  all,  and  all  for  each."  We  confront  the 
dangers  of  the  suffrage  by  the  blessings  of  univer- 

i  Civil  Liberty,  p.  415. 


.  SUFFRAGE  AND   SCHOOLS.  243 

sal  education.  We  believe  that  the  strength  of 
the  State  is  the  aggregate  strength  of  its  individual 
citizens,  and  that  the  suffrage  is  the  link  that  binds 
in  a  bond  of  mutual  interest  and  responsibility  the 
fortunes  of  the  citizen  to  the  fortunes  of  the  State. 

Hence,  as  popular  suffrage  is  the  broadest  base, 
so  when  coupled  with  intelligence  and  virtue  it 
becomes  the  strongest,  the  most  enduring  base, 
on  which  to  build  the  superstructure  of  govern- 
ment. 

Our  great  hope  for  the  future,  —  our  great  safe- 
guard against  danger,  —  is  to  be  found  in  the  gen- 
eral and  thorough  education  of  our  people,  and 
in  the  virtue  which  accompanies  such  education. 
And  all  these  elements  depend  in  a  large  measure 
upon  the  intellectual  and  moral  culture  of  the 
young  men  who  go  out  from  our  higher  institu- 
tions of  learning.  From  the  standpoint  of  this 
general  culture  we  may  trustfully  encounter  the 
perils  that  assail  us.  Secure  against  dangers- 
from  abroad;  united  at  home  by  the  strongest 
ties  of  common  interest  and  patriotic  pride, ;  hold- 
ing and  unifying  our  vast  territory  by  the  most 
potent  forces  of  civilization ;  relying  upon  the 
intelligent  strength  and  responsibility  of  each 
citizen,  and  most  of  all  upon  the  power  of  truth, 


244      PBESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

—  without  undue  arrogance,  we  may  hope  that  in 
the  centuries  to  come,  our  Republic  will  continue 
to  live,  and  hold  its  high  place  among  the  nations 
as 

"  The  heir  of  all  the  ages,  in  the  foremost  files  of  time." 


IV. 

popular  iitmcatfon. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  LETTER  OF  ACCEPTANCE  AND 

THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  JULY  12,  1880, 

AND  MARCH  4,  1881. 


IV. 

POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


in  importance  to  freedom  and  justice 
is  popular  education,  without  which  neither 
freedom  nor  justice  can  be  permanently  main- 
tained. Its  interests  are  intrusted  to  the  States 
and  to  the  voluntary  action  of  the  people.  What- 
ever help  the  nation  can  justly  afford  should  be 
generously  given  to  aid  the  States  in  supporting 
common  schools;  but  it  would  be  unjust  to  our 
people,  and  dangerous  to  our  institutions,  to  apply 
any  portion  of  the  revenues  of  the  nation,  or  of 
the  States,  to  the  support  of  sectarian  schools. 
The  separation  of  the  Church  and  the  State  on 
every  thing  relating  to  taxation  should  be  abso- 
lute. 

But  the  danger  which  arises  from  ignorance  in 
the  voter  cannot  be  denied.  It  covers  a  field  far 
wider  than  that  of  negro  suffrage  and  the  present 
condition  of  the  race.  It  is  a  danger  that  lurks 

247 


248      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

and  hides  in  the  sources  and  fountains  of  power 
in  every  State.  We  have  no  standard  by  which 
to  measure  the  disaster  that  may  be  brought  up- 
on us  by  ignorance  and  vice  in  the  citizen  when 
joined  to  corruption  and  fraud  in  the  suffrage. 

The  voters  of  the  Union,  who  make  and  un- 
make constitutions,  and  upon  whose  will  hang  the 
destinies  of  our  governments,  can  transmit  their 
supreme  authority  to  no  successors  save  the  com- 
ing generation  of  voters,  who  are  the  sole  heirs  of 
sovereign  power.  If  that  generation  comes  to  its 
inheritance  blinded  by  ignorance  and  corrupted 
by  vice,  the  fall  of  the  Republic  will  be  certain 
and  remediless.  The  census  has  already  sounded 
the  alarm  in  the  appalling  figures  which  mark  how 
dangerously  high  the  tide  of  illiteracy  has  risen 
among  our  voters  and  their  children.  To  the 
South  this  question  is  of  supreme  importance. 
But  the  responsibility  for  the  existence  of  slavery 
does  not  rest  upon  the  South  alone.  The  nation 
itself  is  responsible  for  the  extension  of  the  suf- 
frage, and  is  under  special  obligations  to  aid  in 
removing  the  illiteracy  which  it  has  added  to  the 
voting  population.  For  the  North  and  South  alike, 
there  is  but  one  remedy.  All  the  constitutional 
power  of  the  Nation  and  of  the  States,  and  all  the 


POPULAR   EDUCATION.  249 

volunteer  forces  of  the  people,  should  be  sum- 
moned to  meet  this  danger  by  the  saving  influence 
of  universal  education. 

It  is  the  high  privilege  and  sacred  duty  of  those 
now  living  to  educate  their  successors,  and  fit 
them,  by  intelligence  and  virtue,  for  the  inherit- 
ance which  awaits  them. 

In  this  beneficent  work  sections  and  races  should 
be  forgotten,  and  partisanship  should  be  unknown. 
Let  our  people  find  a  new  meaning  in  the  divine 
oracle  which  declares  that  "A  little  child  shall 
lead  them  ;  "  for  our  own  little  children  will  soon 
control  the  destinies  of  the  Republic. 

My  countrymen,  we  do  not  now  differ  in  our 
judgment  concerning  the  controversies  of  past  gen- 
erations, and  fifty  years  hence  our  children  will 
not  be  divided  in  their  opinions  concerning  our 
controversies.  They  will  surely  bless  their  fathers 
and  their  fathers'  God  that  the  Union  was  pre- 
served, that  slavery  was  overthrown,  and  that 
both  races  were  made  equal  before  the  law.  We 
may  hasten  or  we  may  retard,  but  we  cannot  pre- 
vent, the  final  reconciliation.  Is  it  not  possible 
for  us  now  to  make  a  truce  with  time  by  antici- 
pating and  accepting  its  inevitable  verdict  ? 

Enterprises  of  the   highest  importance  to  our 


250      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

moral  and  material  well-being  invite  us,  and  offer 
ample  employment  for  our  best  powers.  Let  all 
our  people,  leaving  behind  them  the  battle-fields 
of  dead  issues,  move  forward,  and,  in  the  strength 
of  liberty  and  the  restored  Union,  win  the  grander 
victories  of  peace. 


V. 


STfje  @tgt  at  tfje  "  Southern 


REPLY  MADE  AT  MENTOR  TO  A  DELEGATION  OP  COLORED 

CITIZENS  FROM  SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND 

OTHER  SOUTHERN  8TATES, 

JAN.  14,  1881. 


V. 

THE  GIST  OF  THE  "SOUTHERN  QUESTION." 


ENERAL  ELLIOTT  AND  GENTLEMEN, 

—  I  thank  you  for  your  congratulations  on 
the  successful  termination  of  the  campaign  re- 
cently closed,  and  especially  for  your  kind  allu- 
sion to  me  personally  for  the  part  I  bore  in  that 
campaign.  What  I  have  done,  what  I  have  said 
concerning  your  race  and  the  great  problem  that 
your  presence  on  this  continent  has  raised,  I  have. 
said  as  a  matter  of  profound  conviction,  and  hold 
to  with  all  the  meaning  of  the  words  employed  in 
expressing  it. 

What  you  have  said  in  regard  to  the  situation 
of  your  people,  the  troubles  that  they  encounter, 
the  evils  from  which  they  have  suffered  and  still 
suffer,  I  have  listened  to  with  deep  attention,  and 
shall  give  it  the  full  measure  of  reflection.  This 
is  not  the  time  or  the  place  for  me  to  indicate  any 
thing  as  to  what  I  shall  have  to  say  and  do  by 
and  by  in  an  official  way.  But  this  I  may  say  :  I 

90S 


254      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

note  as  peculiarly  significant  one  sentence  in  the 
remarks  of  General  Elliott  to  the  effect  that  a 
majority  of  citizens,  as  he  alleges,  in  some  portions 
of  the  South,  are  oppressed  by  the  minority.  If 
this  be  so,  why  is  it  so  ?  It  is  because  a  trained 
man  is  two  or  three  men  in  one,  in  comparison 
with  an  untrained  man ;  and  outside  of  politics, 
and  outside  of  parties,  the  suggestion  is  full  — 
brimful  —  of  significance,  that  the  way  to  make 
the  majority  always  powerful  over  any  minority 
is  to  make  its  members  as  trained  and  intelligent 
as  is  the  minority  itself.  That  brings  the  equality 
of  citizenship ;  and  no  law  can  reasonably  confer 
and  maintain,  in  the  long-run,  equality  that  is  not 
upheld  by  culture  and  intelligence.  Legislation 
ought  to  do  all  it  can. 

I  have  made  these  suggestions,  simply  to  indi- 
cate, that,  in  my  judgment,  the  education  of  your 
race  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  final  solution  of  your 
great  question,  and  that  that  cannot  be  altogether 
in  the  hands  of  the  government.  The  govern- 
ment ought  to  do  all  it  properly  can ;  but  the  na- 
tive hungering  and  thirsting  for  knowledge  that 
the  Creator  has  planted  in  every  child  must  be 
cultivated  by  the  parents  of  the  child  to  the 
last  possible  degree  of  their  ability,  so  that  the 


THE   GIST   OF   THE   "SOUTHERN   QUESTION."       255 

hands  of  the  people  shall  reach  out  and  grasp  in 
the  darkness  the  hand  of  the  government  extend- 
ing its  help.  By  that  union  of  effort,  time  will 
bring  what  mere  legislation  alone  cannot  immedi- 
ately bring  in  any  locality. 

I  rejoice  that  you  have  expressed  so  strongly 
and  earnestly  your  views  in  regard  to  the  neces- 
sity of  your  education.  I  have  felt  for  years  that 
that  was  the  final  solution,  the  final  hope.  Those 
efforts  that  are  humble,  and  comparatively  out  of 
sight,  are,  in  the  long-run,  the  efforts  that  tell.  I 
have  sometimes  thought  that  the  men  who  sink 
the  coffer-dam,  and  work  for  months  in  anchor- 
ing the  great  stones  that  make  the  solid  abut- 
ments and  piers,  whose  work  is  by  and  by  en- 
tirely flooded  by  the  water  and  out  of  sight,  do 
not  get  their  share  of  credit.  The  gaudy  struct- 
ure of  the  bridge  that  rests  on  these  piers,  and 
across  which  the  trains  thunder,  is  the  thing 
that  strikes  the  eye  of  the  general  public.  The 
sunken  piers,  the  hard  work,  the  additional 
growth,  the  building-up  of  industry  and  econo- 
my, all  that  can  help  to  be  the  foundation  of 
real  prosperity,  is  the  work  that  in  the  long-run 
tells. 

Some  Scottish  poet  has  said,  or  put  it  into  the 


256      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

mouth  of  some  other  prophet  to  say,  that  the  time 
would  come 

"  When  Bertram  right  and  Bertram  might 
Shall  meet  on  Ellengowan's  height." 

And  it  is  when  the  might  and  the  right  of  the 
people  meet,  that  majorities  are  never  oppressed  by 
minorities. 

Gentlemen,  that  you  may  take  part  in  this 
earnest  work  of  building  up  your  race  from  the 
foundation  into  the  solidity  of  intelligence  and 
industry  and  strength,  and  upon  those  bases  at 
last  see  all  your  rights  recognized  and  acknowl- 
edged, is  my  personal  wish  and  hope  for  your 
people. 


VI. 

Uriatt'on  at  tfje  National  ©oberntnntt  to 


SPEECH  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 
FEB.  11,  1879. 


VI. 


RELATION   OF    THE    NATIONAL    GOVERNMENT 
TO  SCIENCE.1 

"TV  /TR.  CHAIRMAN,  —  I  think  it  a  misfortune 
that  so  important  a  measure  as  this  is,  is 
placed  upon  one  of  the  annual  appropriation  bills. 
I  have  had  occasion  hitherto  to  characterize  that 
method  of  legislation,  and  I  think  it  is  well  illus- 
trated in  this  case.  If  it  could  have  been  avoided 
in  any  way,  it  ought,  it  seems  to  me,  to  have  been 
avoided  here.  The  subject  embraced  in  the  sec- 
tions which  relate  to'  the  surveys  of  the  public 
land  should  have  been  embodied  in  a  separate  bill, 
and  subjected  to  the  most  careful  scrutiny.  But 
as  the  sections  are  here,  and  may  be  ruled  in 

1  This  speech  was  made  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole 
upon  the  State  of  the  Union,  upon  House  Bill  No.  640,  making 
appropriations  for  the  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  ex- 
penses of  the  government  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30, 
1880,  and  for  other  purposes.  The  immediate  subject  was  the 
sections  of  the  bill  consolidating  the  geological  and  other  sur- 
veys. 


260      PRESIDENT  GABFIELD  AND   EDUCATION. 

order,  I  offer  a  few  suggestions  upon  their 
merits. 

I  will  say,  however,  that  one  subject  provided 
for  in  these  sections  has  had  no  other  place  in  our 
laws  except  in  appropriation  bills,  and  probably 
cannot  be  ruled  out  on  the  point  of  order.  I 
speak  of  those  scientific  surveys  which  for  the 
last  ten  or  twelve  years  have  been  supported  by 
the  government.  I  think  I  am  right  in  saying 
that  there  is  no  independent  statute  touching 
them :  all  the  legislation  hi  regard  to  them  is  to 
be  found  in  the  appropriation  bills.  And  what  I 
shall  say  in  the  short  time  I  propose  to  address 
the  committee  this  morning,  will  relate  chiefly  to 
those  surveys. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  whatever 
the  United  States  undertakes  to  do  in  reference  to 
science  shall  be  done  upon  some  well-understood, 
well-reasoned,  and  well-defined  system.  And  I 
venture  to  ask  the  attention  of  the  Committee  of 
the  Whole  for  a  few  minutes  to  some  general 
views  on  the  relation  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment to  this  subject. 

We  are  accustomed  to  hear  it  said  that  the 
great  powers  of  government  in  this  country  are 
divided  into  two  classes,  —  National  powers  and 


NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT   AND   SCIENCE.      261 

State  powers.  That  is  an  incomplete  classifica- 
tion. Our  fathers  carefully  divided  all  govern- 
mental powers  into  three  classes :  one  they  gave 
to  the  States ;  another,  Nation ;  but  the  third  great 
class,  comprising  the  most  precious  of  all  powers, 
they  refused  to  confer  upon  the  States  or  the 
Nation,  but  reserved  to  themselves.  This  third 
class  of  powers  has  been  almost  uniformly  over- 
looked by  men  who  have  discussed  the  American 
system. 

My  attention  was  called  to  this  in  a  striking 
way  not  long  since,  in  reading  a  speech  of  Bis- 
marck's before  the  Reichstag  of  Germany.  A 
proposition  was  pending  to  grant  some  political 
rights  to  the  Jews  in  the  German  empire.  Bis- 
marck opposed  it ;  and  in  doing  so  he  took  occa- 
sion to  state  what,  in  his  view,  was  the  primary 
object  of  the  Prussian  government ;  and  I  was 
startled  at  the  statement:  — 

"  All  gentlemen  around  me  will  admit,"  said  he,  "  that 
the  primary  object  of  the  Prussian  government  is  to  main- 
tain and  defend  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  How, 
then,  can  one  who  disbelieves  in  Christ  be  properly  admitted 
as  a  sharer  of  power  in  this  kingdom?  " 

I  was  struck  with  the  fact  that  the  great  states- 
man of  Germany  —  probably  the  foremost  man  in 


262      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

Europe  to-day  —  stated  as  an  unquestioned  prin- 
ciple, that  the  support,  defence,  and  propagation 
of  the  Christian  gospel  is  the  central  object  of 
the  German  government.  Then  I  considered,  in 
contrast  with  that,  the  peculiarity  of  our  own 
government.  Our  fathers,  though  recognizing,  in 
common  with  Germany  and  the  other  Christian 
nations  of  the  earth,  the  supreme  importance  of 
religion  among  men,  deliberately  turned  to  the 
great  nation  they  were  to  establish,  and  said, 
"  You  shall  never  make  any  law  about  religion  ;  " 
and  to  the  States  they  virtually  said,  "  You  shall 
never  make  any  law  establishing  any  form  of  reli- 
gion." In  other  words,  here  was  an  interest  too 
precious  to  be  trusted,  either  to  the  Nation  or  to 
the  States.  Our  fathers  said,  "  This  highest  of  all 
human  interests  we  will  reserve  to  the  people 
themselves.  We  will  not  delegate  our  power  over 
it  to  any  organized  government,  State  or  National. 
We  will  not  even  allow  legislatures  to  make  any 
law  concerning  it." 

To  my  mind,  it  is  the  sublimest  fact  in  our 
American  system,  that,  in  defining  the  boundaries 
of  delegated  powers,  they  chose  to  intrust  the 
most  precious  of  all  the  interests  of  human  beings 
on  this  earth  absolutely  to  the  voluntary  action 


NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT  AND   SCIENCE.      263 

of  the  individual  people  of  the  Republic,  not  to 
be  voted  upon  by  their  representatives,  but  to  be 
regulated,  protected,  and  cherished  by  their  own 
voluntary  action,  leaving  themselves  perfectly  free 
to  have  no  religion  if  they  chose,  or  any  religion 
that  they  pleased.  Thus  they  exhibited  their 
regard  for  liberty,  their  faith  in  the  voluntary 
action  of  the  people,  and  their  belief  that  the  most 
precious  interests  would  be  safest  under  the  im- 
mediate guardianship  of  freemen.  In  my  view, 
we  have  spent  too  much  time  in  discussing  State 
sovereignty  and  National  supremacy,  and  have 
neglected  to  recognize  and  appreciate  the  vast 
importance  of  the  reserved  rights  of  the  people. 

It  is  a  safe  and  wise  rule  to  follow  in  all  legis- 
lation, that  whatever  the  people  can  do  without 
legislation  will  be  better  done  by  them  than  by 
the  intervention  of  the  State  or  the  Nation. 

What  I  have  said  in  reference  to  religion  ap- 
plies with  almost  equal  force  to  science.  In  the 
main,  the  framers  of  our  government  trusted 
science  to  the  same  jurisdiction  to  which  they 
intrusted  religion.  With  the  single  exception  of 
one  clause  in  the  Constitution  authorizing  Con- 
gress to  promote  science  by  granting  copyrights 
and  patents,  the  chief  support  and  maintenance 


264      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

of  science  are  left,  and  I  think  wisely  left,  to  the 
voluntary  action  of  our  people ;  and  this  was 
done,  not  in  the  interest  of  liberty  alone,  but  in 
the  interest  of  science  itself. 

This  leads  me  to  inquire,  What  ought  to  be  the 
relation  of  the  National  Government  to  science  ? 
What,  if  any  thing,  ought  we  to  do  in  the  way 
of  promoting  science  ?  For  example,  if  we  have 
the  power,  would  it  be  wise  for  Congress  to  ap- 
propriate money  out  of  the  treasury  to  employ 
naturalists  to  find  out  all  that  is  to  be  known  of 
our  American  birds  ?  Ornithology  is  a  delightful 
and  useful  study;  but  would  it  be  wise  for  Congress 
to  make  an  appropriation  for  the  advancement  of 
that  science?  In  my  judgment,  manifestly  not. 
We  would  thereby  make  one  favored  class  of  men 
the  rivals  of  all  the  ornithologists  who,  in  their 
private  way,  following  the  bent  of  their  genius, 
may  be  working  out  the  results  of  science  in  that 
field.  I  have  no  doubt  that  an  appropriation  out 
of  our  treasury  for  that  purpose  would  be  a  posi- 
tive injury  to  the  advancement  of  science,  just  as 
an  appropriation  to  establish  a  church  would  work 
injury  to  religion. 

Generally  the  desire  of  our  scientific  men  is  to 
be  let  alone,  to  work  in  free  competition  with  all 


NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT   AND   SCIENCE.      265 

the  scientific  men  of  the  world ;  to  develop  their 
own  results,  and  get  the  credit  of  them  each  for 
himself;  not  to  have  the  government  enter  the 
lists  as  the  rival  of  private  enterprise. 

As  a  general  principle,  therefore,  the  United 
States  ought  not  to  interfere  in  matters  of  science, 
but  should  leave  its  development  to  the  free, 
voluntary  action  of  our  third  great  estate,  —  the 
people  themselves. 

In  this  non-interference  theory  of  the  govern- 
ment, I  do  not  go  to  the  extent  of  saying  that  we 
should  do  nothing  for  education,  —  for  primary 
education.  That  comes  under  another  considera- 
tion, —  the  necessity  of  the  nation  to  protect  itself, 
and  the  consideration  that  it  is  cheaper  and  wiser 
to  give  education  than  to  build  jails.  But  I  am 
speaking  now  of  the  higher  sciences. 

To  the  general  principle  I  have  stated,  there 
are  a  few  obvious  exceptions,  which  should  be 
clearly  understood  when  we  legislate  on  the  sub- 
ject. In  the  first  place,  the  government  should 
aid  all  sorts  of  scientific  inquiry  that  are  necessary 
to  the  intelligent  exercise  of  its  own  functions. 

For  example,  as  we  are  authorized  by  the  Con- 
stitution, and  compelled  by  necessity,  to  build  and 
maintain  light-houses  on  our  coast,  and  establish 


266      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION". 

fog-signals,  we  are  bound  to  make  all  necessary 
scientific  inquiries  in  reference  to  light  and  its 
laws,  sound  and  its  laws,  —  to  do  whatever  in  the 
way  of  science  is  necessary  to  achieve  the  best 
results  in  lighting  our  coasts  and  warning  our 
mariners  of  danger.  So,  when  we  are  building 
iron-clads  for  our  navy,  or  casting  guns  for  our 
army,  we  ought  to  know  all  that  is  scientifically 
possible  to  be  known  about  the  strength  of  ma- 
terials and  the  laws  of  mechanics  which  apply  to 
such  structure.  In  short,  wherever,  in  exercising 
any  of  the  necessary  functions  of  the  government, 
scientific  inquiry  is  needed,  let  us  make  it  to  the 
fullest  extent,  and  at  the  public  expense. 

There  is  another  exception  to  the  general  rule 
of  leaving  science  to  the  voluntary  action  of  the 
people.  Wherever  any  great  popular  interest, 
affecting  whole  classes,  possibly  all  classes  of  the 
community,  imperatively  needs  scientific  investiga- 
tion, and  private  enterprise  cannot  accomplish  it, 
we  may  wisely  intervene  and  help  where  the  Con- 
stitution gives  us  authority.  For  example,  in 
discovering  the  origin  of  yellow-fever,  and  the 
methods  of  preventing  its  ravages,  the  Nation 
should  do,  for  the  good  of  all,  what  neither  the 
States  nor  individuals  can  accomplish.  I  might 


NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT  AND   SCIENCE.      267 

perhaps  include,  in  a  third  exception,  those  in- 
quiries which,  in  consequence  of  their  great  mag- 
nitude and  cost,  cannot  be  successfully  made  by 
private  individuals.  Outside  these  three  classes 
of  inquiries,  the  government  ought  to  keep  its 
hands  off,  and  leave  scientific  experiment  and 
inquiry  to  the  free  competition  of  those  bright, 
intelligent  men  whose  genius  leads  them  into  the 
fields  of  research. 

And  I  suspect,  when  we  read  the  report  of  our 
Commissioner  to  the  late  Paris  Exposition,  which 
shows  such  astonishing  results,  so  creditable  to 
our  country,  so  honorable  to  the  genius  of  our 
people,  it  will  be  found  in  any  final  analysis  of 
causes,  that  the  superiority  of  Americans  in  that 
great  exposition  resulted  mainly  from  their  supe- 
rior freedom,  and  the  greater  competition  between 
mind  and  mind,  untrammelled  by  government  in- 
terference. I  believe  it  will  be  found  we  are  best 
serving  the  cause  of  religion  and  science,  and  all 
those  great  primary  rights  which. we  did  not  dele- 
gate to  the  Congress  or  the  States,  but  left  the 
people  free  to  enjoy  and  maintain  them. 

Mr.  Chairman,  leaving  these  general  reflections, 
I  come  to  the  special  question  of  our  geological 
surveys.  Leaving  out  of  the  account  all  the 


268      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

government  works  proper,  such  as  light-houses, 
such  as  the  survey  of  our  coast,  such  as  the 
survey  of  our  rivers  and  harbors,  such  as  the 
surveys  of  the  lakes,  of  military  surveys  proper, 
—  leaving  all  these  out,  we  have  spent  almost  two 
million  dollars  in  the  last  twelve  years  for  purely 
scientific  survej^s.  While  the  results  have  been 
very  gratifying,  while  they  have  been  exceedingly 
interesting  to  men  of  science,  and  also  of  com- 
mercial value  to  the  country,  I  believe  we  have 
spent  a  large  part  of  that  money  upon  an  unwise 
system,  and  in  a  way  which  has  tended  to  dis- 
courage the  private  pursuit  of  science  by  our 
people. 

We  have  made  the  government  a  formidable 
and  crushing  competitor  of  private  students  of 
science ;  and  I  think  we  have,  in  some  cases,  gone 
beyond  the  fair  limit  of  what  the  government 
ought  to  do  in  the  way  of  scientific  investigation. 
We  have  had  the  War  Department,  with  two  or 
three  separate  expeditions,  exploring  our  Western 
territory ;  we  have  had  two  separate  organiza- 
tions from  the  Interior  Department,  also  exploring  : 
and  it  has  all  been  done  on  a  system  which  has 
invited  and  fostered  a  personal  seeking  of  favor 
from  Congress.  There  have  been  good  men,  intel- 


NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT   AND   SCIENCE.      269 

ligent  men,  scientific  men,  who  have  sought  for 
authority  and  aid  to  make  scientific  investigations 
in  fields  which  private  citizens  were  exploring; 
and  in  employing  so  many  separate  and  independ- 
ent parties,  there  have  been  many  cases,  if  not  of 
collision,  at  least  of  overlapping  and  duplication, 
in  the  same  field  of  examination.  It  seems  to  me 
it  is  high  time  for  us,  first,  to  restrict  our  scientific 
work  plainly  and  narrowly  within  the  limits  of 
the  rules  I  have  tried  to  lay  down ;  and,  second, 
to  consolidate  the  scientific  part  of  our  work  of 
survey  under  one  responsible  head,  and,  having 
done  that,  with  all  the  economy  which  can  be 
fairly  used,  let  us  make  our  outlay  only  in  the 
direction  of  public  necessity. 

Now,  lest  some  one  should  think  I  am  attacking 
the  geological  surveys,  I  hasten  to  say  that  it  is 
absolutely  vital  to  an  intelligent  discharge  of  our 
duties  as  trustees,  or  rather  as  owners,  of  the 
great  public  domain  yet  unsurveyed  and  unsold, 
to  give  to  our  people  all  the  light  that  science 
can  shed  upon  the  character  and  quality  of  those 
lands. 

While  I  may  doubt  the  propriety  of  making 
at  once  the  whole  change  proposed  in  this  bill,  it 
is  perfectly  clear  to  my  mind  that  we  have  reached 


270      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

a  natural  crisis  in  the  management  and  disposition 
of  our  public  domain.  We  have  now  reached  the 
foot-hills  of  the  great  Rocky-Mountain  chain ;  and 
the  old  plans,  the  old  methods,  both  of  survey 
and  of  settlement,  are  in  the  main  no  longer 
applicable.  Of  what  possible  use  can  it  be  to 
checkerboard  the  slopes  and  the  tops  of  moun- 
tains that  are  full  of  ores  with  the  old  system  of 
sections,  half-sections,  and  quarter-sections  ? 

To  say  that  the  old  plan  has  worked  well  for  a 
hundred  years,  is  to  praise  our  past  properly ;  but 
to  say  that  the  same  plan  will  work  well  for  the 
next  hundred  years,  is  to  say  the  match-locks, 
gun-flints,  the  spoiitoons,  and  other  nameless  and 
obsolete  implements  of  war,  that  were  in  vogue  a 
hundred  years  ago,  will  be  good  for  a  hundred 
years  to  come,  and  should  not  be  abandoned. 
We  must  not  revolutionize  merely  for  the  sake 
of  change ;  but  we  must  wisely  and  intelligently 
adapt  our  policy  to  the  progress  of  events ;  and 
I  believe  it  has  been  clearly  shown,  that,  if  the 
old  rectangular  system  is  continued,  it  will  be 
substantially  worthless  in  its  application  to  most 
of  our  unsurveyed  territory. 

Mr.  KEIFER.     It  never  was  applied  to  them. 

Mr.  GARFIELD.     We  do  not  want  it  to  be. 


NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT   AND   SCIENCE.      271 

Mr.  KEIFER.     And  it  never  will  be. 

Mr.  GARFIELD.  But  I  am  confining  what  I 
say  to-day  almost  exclusively  to  that  clause  of  the 
bill  which  relates  to  the  scientific  surveys.  As 
regards  the  land-surveys,  I  confess  I  have  not 
studied  that  subject  so  fully  as  some  of  the  gen- 
tlemen around  me. 

Mr.  PAGE.  May  I  ask  the  gentleman  a  ques- 
tion? 

Mr.  GARFIELD.     Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  PAGE.  I  ask  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  if 
he  is  not  aware  that  the  amendment  of  which  he 
is  now  speaking  is  directly  in  violation  of,  or 
changes,  existing  law,  and  makes  an  appropriation 
for  an  additional  officer  not  now  known  to  the 
law?  and  whether  he  is  in  favor  of  new  legisla- 
tion on  an  appropriation  bill? 

Mr.  GARFIELD.  I  said  in  the  outset  of  my 
remarks,  that  I  am  opposed  to  that  mode  of 
legislation,  and  that  I  regret  for  that  reason  that 
this  provision  is  here  and  not  in  a  bill  by  itself. 
My  record  is  too  well  known  to  leave  any  doubt 
on  that  subject. 

I  say  this :  Let  us  consolidate  these  scientific 
explorations  and  surveys,  and  unite  them  under 
one  head,  and  not  scatter  them  as  we  have  done 


272      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

hitherto,  and  waste  money,  and  duplicate  work, 
and  make  the  name  of  science  ridiculous  in  the 
United  States.  As  to  the  other  parts  of  these 
sections,  let  us  at  least  make  an  arrangement,  if 
we  do  no  more,  by  which  we  shall  have  a  full  and 
complete  report  upon  the  whole  subject,  so  that 
we  may  make  these  changes  soon  if  not  now. 

In  this  hurried  way  I  have  said  nearly  all  I 
intended  to  say,  except  to  call  attention  to  one 
other  point.  Besides  going  too  far  in  scientific 
explorations,  we  have  greatly  wronged  the  scien- 
tific publication  societies  of  this  country.  I  sup- 
pose some  gentlemen  may  not  know  that  there  are 
twenty-seven  voluntary  scientific  associations  in 
this  country  that  publish  their  proceedings,  be- 
sides five  or  six  journals  specially  devoted  to  pub- 
lishing the  discoveries  of  science. 

These  are  a  part  of  the  means  by  which  discov- 
eries in  science  can  find  their  way  to  the  public 
through  the  press ;  and  yet  we  are  printing  thou- 
sands of  volumes  in  competition  with  the  private 
associations  of  the  country,  and  thereby  injuring 
and  crippling  them.  I  believe  we  ought  simply 
to  confine  ourselves  to  our  own  business,  and  not 
needlessly  travel  into  their  field.  Without  very 
much  reflection,  and  in  a  manner  quite  unsatis- 


NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT  AND   SCIENCE.      273 

factory  to  myself,  I  have  offered  these  suggestions. 
If  I  have  stimulated  any  one  to  do  the  subject 
better  justice,  I  shall  not  altogether  have  failed 
of  my  purpose. 


vn. 


College  lEtucatfon. 

AN  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  LITERARY  SOCIETIES  OF  THE 

ECLECTIC  INSTITUTE,  HIRAM,  O., 

JUNE  14,  1867. 


vn. 

COLLEGE  EDUCATION. 

ENTLEMEN  OF  THE  LITERARY  SO- 
CIETIES,— I  congratulate  you  on  the  sig- 
nificant fact,  that  the  questions  which  most  vitally 
concern  your  personal  work,  are  at  this  time 
rapidly  becoming,  indeed  have  already  become, 
questions  of  first  importance  to  the  whole  nation. 
In  ordinary  times,  we  could  scarcely  find  two  sub- 
jects wider  apart  than  the  meditations  of  a  school- 
boy, when  he  asks  what  he  shall  do  with  himself, 
and  how  he  shall  do  it,  and  the  forecastings  of  a 
great  nation,  when  it  studies  the  laws  of  its  own 
life,  and  endeavors  to  solve  the  problem  of  its 
destiny.  But  now  there  is  more  than  a  resem- 
blance between  the  nation's  work  and  yours.  If 
the  two  are  not  identical,  they  at  least  bear  the 
relation  of  the  whole  to  a  part. 

The  nation,  having  passed  through  the  child- 
hood of  its  history,  and  being  about  to  enter  upon 
a  new  life,  based  on  a  fuller  recognition  of  the 

277 


278      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

rights  of  manhood,  has  discovered  that  liberty  can 
be  safe  only  when  the  suffrage  is  illuminated  by 
education.  It  is  now  perceived  that  the  life  and 
light  of  a  nation  are  inseparable.  Hence  the 
Federal  Government  has  established  a  National 
Department  of  Education,  for  the  purpose  of 
teaching  young  men  and  women  how  to  be  good 
citizens. 

You,  young  gentlemen,  having  passed  the  limits 
of  childhood,  and  being  about  to  enter  the  larger 
world  of  manhood,  with  its  manifold  struggles  and 
aspirations,  are  now  confronted  with  the  question, 
"  What  must  I  do  to  fit  myself  most  completely, 
not  for  being  a  citizen  merely,  but  for  being  « all 
that  doth  become  a  man,'  living  in  the  full  light 
of  the  Christian  civilization  of  America  ?  "  Your 
disinthralled  and  victorious  country  asks  you  to 
be  educated  for  her  sake,  and  the  noblest  aspira- 
tions of  your  being  still  more  imperatively  ask  it 
for  your  own  sake. 

In  the  hope  that  I  may  aid  you  in  solving 
some  of  these  questions,  I  have  chosen  for  my 
theme  on  this  occasion :  — 

"The  Course  of  Study  in  American  Colleges, 
and  its  Adaptation  to  the  Wants  of  our  Time." 

Before    examining    any   course    of    study,  we 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  279 

should  clearly  apprehend  the  objects  to  be  ob- 
tained by  a  liberal  education. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  purpose 
of  all  study  is  twofold,  —  to  discipline  our  fac- 
ulties, and  to  acquire  knowledge  for  the  duties 
of  life.  It  is  happily  provided  in  the  consti- 
tution of  the  human  mind,  that  the  labor  by 
which  knowledge  is  acquired  is  the  only  means 
of  disciplining  the  powers.  It  may  be  stated  as 
a  general  rule,  that  if  we  compel  ourselves  to 
learn  what  we  ought  to  know,  and  use  it  when 
learned,  our  discipline  will  take  care  of  itself. 

Let  us,  then,  inquire,  What  kinds  of  knowledge 
should  be  the  objects  of  a  liberal  education? 
Without  adopting  in  full  the  classification  of  Her- 
bert Spencer,  it  will  be  sufficiently  comprehensive 
for  my  present  purpose  to  propose  the  following 
kinds  of  knowledge,  stated  in  the  order  of  their 
importance :  — 

First,  That  knowledge  which  is  necessary  for 
the  full  development  of  our  bodies  and  the 
preservation  of  our  health. 

Second,  The  knowledge  of  those  principles  by 
which  the  useful  arts  and  industries  are  carried 
on  and  improved. 

Third,  That  knowledge  which  is  necessary  to 


280      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

a  full  comprehension  of  our  rights  and  duties  as 
citizens. 

Fourth,  A  knowledge  of  the  intellectual,  moral, 
religious,  and  aesthetic  nature  of  man,  and  his 
relations  to  nature  and  civilization. 

Fifth,  That  special  and  thorough  knowledge 
which  is  requisite  for  the  particular  profession  or 
pursuit  which  a  man*  may  choose  as  his  life-work 
after  he  has  completed  his  college  studies. 

In  brief,  the  student  should  study  himself,  his  rela- 
tions to  society,  to  nature,  and  to  art;  and  above  all, 
in  all,  and  through  all  these,  he  should  study  the  rela- 
tions of  himself,  society,  nature,  and  art,  to  God,  the 
Author  of  them  all.  Of  course  it  is  not  possible, 
nor  is  it  desirable,  to  confine  the  course  of  devel- 
opment exclusively  to  this  order ;  for  Truth  is  so 
related  and  correlated,  that  no  department  of  her 
realm  is  wholly  isolated.  We  cannot  learn  much 
that  pertains  to  the  industry  of  society,  without 
learning  something  of  the  material  worLd,  and  the 
laws  which  govern  it.  We  cannot  study  nature 
profoundly  without  bringing  ourselves  into  com- 
munion with  the  spirit  of  art,  which  pervades 
and  fills  the  universe.  But  what  I  suggest  is, 
that  we  should  make  the  course  of  study  conform 
generally  to  the  order  here  indicated;  that  the 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  281 

student  shall  first  study  what  he  most  needs  to 
know;  that  the  order  of  his  needs  shall  be  the 
order  of  his  work.  Now,  it  will  not  be  denied, 
that  from  the  day  that  the  child's  foot  first  presses 
the  green  turf  till  the  day  when,  an  old  man,  he 
is  ready  to  be  laid  under  it,  there  is  not  an  hour 
in  which  he  does  not  need  to  know  a  thousand 
things  in  relation  to  his  body,  — "  what  he  shall 
eat,  what  he  shall  drink,  and  wherewithal  he  shall 
be  clothed."  Unprovided  with  that  instinct  which 
enables  the  lower  animals  to  reject  the  noxious, 
and  select  the  nutritive,  man  must  learn  even  the 
most  primary  truth  that  ministers  to  his  self- 
preservation.  If  parents  were  themselves  suffi- 
ciently educated,  most  of  this  knowledge  might 
be  acquired  at  the  mother's  knee;  but,  by  the 
strangest  perversion  and  misdirection  of  the  edu- 
cational forces,  these  most  essential  elements  of 
knowledge  are  more  neglected  than  any  other. 

School-committees  would  summarily  dismiss  the 
teacher  who  should  have  the  good  sense  and  cour- 
age to  spend  three  days  of  each  week  with  her 
pupils  in  the  fields  and  woods,  teaching  them  the 
names,  peculiarities,  and  uses  of  rocks,  trees,  plants, 
and  flowers,  and  the  beautiful  story  of  the  animals, 
birds,  and  insects,  which  fill  the  world  with  life 


282      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

and  beauty.  They  will  applaud  her  for  continu- 
ing to  perpetrate  that  undefended  and  indefensible 
outrage  upon  the  laws  of  physical  and  intellectual 
life,  which  keeps  a  little  child  sitting  in  silence,  in 
a  vain  attempt  to  hold  his  mind  to  the  words  of  a 
printed  page,  for  six  hours  in  a  day.  Herod  was 
merciful,  for  he  finished  his  slaughter  of  the  inno- 
cents in  a  day ;  but  this  practice  kills  by  the  sav- 
agery of  slow  torture.  And  what  is  the  child 
directed  to  study?  Besides  the  mass  of  words 
and  sentences  which  he  is  compelled  to  memorize, 
not  one  syllable  of  which  he  understands,  at  eight 
or  ten  years  of  age  he  is  set  to  work  on  English 
grammar,  —  one  of  the  most  complex,  intricate, 
and  metaphysical  of  studies,  requiring  a  mind  of 
much  muscle  and  discipline  to  master  it.  Thus 
are  squandered  —  nay,  far  worse  than  squandered 
—  those  thrice  precious  years,  when  the  child  is  all 
ear  and  eye,  when  its  eager  spirit,  with  insatiable 
curiosity,  hungers  and  thirsts  to  know  the  what 
and  the  why  of  the  world  and  its  wonderful  furni- 
ture. We  silence  its  sweet  clamor  by  cramming  its 
hungry  mind  with  words,  words,  —  empty,  mean- 
ingless words.  It  asks  for  bread,  and  we  give  it  a 
stone.  It  is  to  me  a  perpetual  wonder  that  any 
child's  love  of  knowledge  survives  the  outrages  of 


COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  283 

the  schoolhouse.  It  would  be  foreign  from  my 
present  purpose  to  consider  further  the  subject  of 
primary  education ;  but  it  is  worthy  your  profound- 
est  thought,  for  "  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life." 
That  man  will  be  a  benefactor  of  his  race  who 
shall  teach  us  how  to  manage  rightly  the  first 
years  of  a  child's  education.  I,  for  one,  declare 
that  no  child  of  mine  shall  ever  be  compelled  to 
study  one  hour,  or  to  learn  even  the  English 
alphabet,  before  he  has  deposited  under  his  skin 
at  least  seven  years  of  muscle  and  bone. 

What  are  our  seminaries  and  colleges  accom- 
plishing in  the  way  of  teaching  the  laws  of  life 
and  physical  well-being?  I  should  scarcely  wrong 
them,  were  I  to  answer,  Nothing :  absolutely  noth- 
ing. The  few  recitations  which  some  of  the  col- 
leges require  in  anatomy  and  physiology,  unfold 
but  the  alphabet  of  those  subjects.  The  emphasis 
of  college  culture  does  not  fall  there.  The  gradu- 
ate has  learned  the  Latin  of  the  old  maxim,  "Mens 
sana  in  corpore  sano  ;  "  but  how  to  strengthen  the 
mind  by  the  preservation  of  the  body,  he  has  never 
learned.  He  can  read  you  in  Xenophon's  best 
Attic  Greek,  that  Apollo  flayed  the  unhappy  Mar- 
syas,  and  hanged  up  his  skin  as  a  trophy ;  but  he 
has  never  examined  the  wonderful  texture  of  his 


284      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

own  skin,  or  the  laws  by  which  he  may  preserve 
it.  He  would  blush,  were  he  to  mistake  the  place 
of  a  Greek  accent,  or  put  the  ictus  on  the  second 
syllable  of  Eolus ;  but  the  whole  circle  "  lib- 
eralium  artium"  so  pompously  referred  to  in 
his  diploma  of  graduation,  may  not  have  taught 
him,  as  I  can  testify  in  an  instance  personally 
known  to  me,  whether  the  jejunum  is  a  bone,  or 
the  humerus  an  intestine.  Every  hour  of  study 
consumes  a  portion  of  his  muscular  and  vital 
force.  Every  tissue  of  his  body  requires  its  ap- 
propriate nourishment,  the  elements  of  which  are 
found  in  abundance  in  the  various  products  of 
nature ;  but  he  has  never  inquired  where  he  shall 
find  the  phosphates  and  carbonates  of  lime  for  his 
bones,  albumen  and  fibrine  for  his  blood,  and  phos- 
phorus for  his  brain.  His  chemistry,  mineralogy, 
botany,  anatomy,  and  physiology,  if  thoroughly 
studied,  would  give  all  this  knowledge ;  but  he 
has  been  intent  on  things  remote  and  foreign,  and 
has  given  but  little  heed  to  those  matters  which 
so  nearly  concern  the  chief  functions  of  life.  But 
the  student  should  not  be  blamed.  The  great 
men  of  history  have  set  him  the  example.  Coper- 
nicus discovered  and  announced  the  true  theory 
of  the  solar  system  a  hundred  years  before  the 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  285 

circulation  of  the  blood  was  known.  Though 
from  the  heart  to  the  surface,  and  from  the  sur- 
face back  to  the  heart,  of  every  man  of  the  race, 
some  twenty  pounds  of  blood  had  made  the  cir- 
cuit once  every  three  minutes,  yet  men  were  look- 
ing so  steadily  away  from  themselves  that  they 
did  not  observe  the  wonderful  fact.  His  habit 
of  thought  has  developed  itself  in  all  the  courses  of 
college  study. 

In  the  next  place,  I  inquire,  What  kinds  of 
knowledge  are  necessary  for  carrying  on  and  im- 
proving the  useful  arts  and  industries  of  civilized 
life  ?  I  am  well  aware  of  the  current  notion,  that 
these  muscular  arts  should  stay  in  the  fields  and 
shops,  and  not  invade  the  sanctuaries  of  learning. 
A  finished  education  is  supposed  to  consist  mainly 
of  literary  culture.  The  story  of  the  forges  of  the 
Cyclops,  where  the  thunderbolts  of  Jove  were 
fashioned,  is  supposed  to  adorn  elegant  scholarship 
more  gracefully  than  those  sturdy  truths  which 
are  preaching  to  this  generation  in  the  wonders  of 
the  mine,  in  the  fire  of  the  furnace,  in  the  clang 
of  the  iron-mills,  and  the  other  innumerable  indus- 
tries, which,  more  than  all  other  human  agencies, 
have  made  our  civilization  what  it  is,  and  are  des- 
tined to  achieve  wonders  yet  undreamed  of.  This 


286      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

generation  is  beginning  to  understand  that  educa- 
tion should  not  be  forever  divorced  from  indus- 
try, —  that  the  highest  results  can  be  reached  only 
when  science  guides  the  hand  of  labor.  With  what 
eagerness  and  alacrity  is  industry  seizing  every 
truth  of  science,  and  putting  it  in  harness!  A 
few  years  ago  Bessemer  of  England,  studying  the 
nice  affinities  between  carbon  and  the  metals,  dis- 
covered that  a  slight  change  of  combination  would 
produce  a  metal  possessing  the  ductility  of  iron 
and  the  compactness  of  steel,  and  which  would 
cost  but  little  more  than  common  iron.  One  rail 
of  this  metal  will  outlast  fifteen  of  the  iron  rails 
now  in  use.  Millions  of  capital  are  already  in- 
vested to  utilize  this  thought  of  Bessemer's,  which 
must  soon  revolutionize  the  iorn-manufacture  of 
the  world. 

Another  example :  The  late  war  raised  the  price 
of  cotton,  and  paper  made  of  cotton  rags.  It  was 
found  that  good  paper  could  be  manufactured 
from  the  fibre  of  soft  wood ;  but  it  was  expensive 
and  difficult  to  reduce  to  a  pulp,  without  chopping 
the  fibre  in  pieces.  A  Yankee  mechanic,  who  had 
learned  in  the  science  of  vegetable  anatomy  that 
a  billet  of  wood  was  composed  of  millions  of  hol- 
low cylinders,  many  of  them  so  small  that  only  the 


COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  287 

microscope  could  reveal  them,  and  having  learned 
also  the  penetrative  and  expansive  power  of  steam, 
wedded  these  two  truths  in  an  experiment,  which, 
if  exhibited  to  Socrates,  would  have  been  declared 
a  miracle  from  the  gods.  The  experiment  was 
very  simple.  Putting  his  block  of  wood  in  a 
strong  box,  he  forced  into  it  a  volume  of  super- 
heated steam  which  made  its  way  into  the  minut- 
est pore  and  cell  of  the  wood.  Then  through  a 
trap-door  suddenly  opened,  the  block  was  tossed 
out.  The  outside  pressure  being  removed,  the 
expanding  steam  instantly  burst  every  one  of  the 
million  tubes ;  every  vegetable  flue  collapsed,  and 
his  block  of  wood  lay  before  him  a  mass  of  fleecy 
fibre,  more  delicate  than  the  hand  of  man  could 
make  it. 

Machinery  is  the  chief  implement  with  which 
civilization  does  its  work ;  but  the  science  of  me- 
chanics is  impossible  without  mathematics. 

But  for  her  mineral  resources,  England  would 
be  only  the  hunting-park  of  Europe,  and  it  is 
believed  that  her  day  of  greatness  will  terminate 
when  her  coal-fields  are  exhausted.  Our  mineral 
wealth  is  a  thousand  times  greater  than  hers ;  and 
yet,  without  the  knowledge  of  geology,  mineralogy, 
metallurgy,  and  chemistry,  our  mines  could  be  of 


288      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

but  little  value.  Without  a  knowledge  of  as- 
tronomy, commerce  on  the  sea  is  impossible ;  and 
now  at  last  it  is  being  discovered  that  the  greatest 
of  all  our  industries,  the  agricultural,  in  which 
three-fourths  of  all  our  population  are  engaged, 
must  call  science  to  its  aid,  if  it  would  keep  up 
with  the  demands  of  civilization.  I  need  not 
enumerate  the  extent  and  variety  of  knowledge, 
scientific  and  practical,  which  a  farmer  needs  in 
order  to  reach  the  full  height  and  scope  of  his 
noble  calling.  And  what  has  our  American  system 
of  education  done  for  this  controlling  majority  of 
the  people  ?  I  can  best  answer  that  question  with 
a  single  fact.  Notwithstanding  there  are  in  the 
United  States  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
common  schools  and  seven  thousand  academies 
and  seminaries;  notwithstanding  there  are  two 
hundred  and  .seventy-five  colleges  where  young 
men  may  be  graduated  as  bachelors  and  masters 
of  the  liberal  arts, — yet  in  all  these  the  people  of 
the  United  States  have  found  so  little  being  done, 
or  likely  to  be  done,  to  educate  men  for  the  work 
of  agriculture,  that  they  have  demanded,  and  at 
last  have  secured  from  their  political  servants  in 
Congress,  an  appropriation  sufficient  to  build  and 
maintain,  in  each  State  of  the  Union,  a  college  for 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  289 

the  education  of  farmers.  This  great  outlay 
would  have  been  totally  unnecessary,  but  for  the 
stupid  and  criminal  neglect  of  college,  academic, 
and  common-school  boards  of  education  to  furnish 
that  which  the  wants  of  the  people  require.  The 
scholar  and  the  worker  must  join  hands,  if  both 
would  be  successful. 

I  next  ask,  What  studies  are  necessary  to  teach 
our  young  men  and  women  the  history  and  spirit 
of  our  government,  and  their  rights  and  duties  as 
citizens  ?  There  is  not  now,  and  there  never  was 
on  this  earth,  a  people  who  have  had  so  many  and 
weighty  reasons  for  loving  their  country,  and 
thanking  God  for  the  blessings  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty,  as  our  own.  And  yet,  seven  years 
ago,  there  was  probably  less  strong,  earnest,  open 
love  of  country  in  the  United  States  than  in  any 
other  nation  of  Christendom.  It  is  true,  that 
the  gulf  of  anarchy  and  ruin  into  which  treason 
threatened  to  plunge  us,  startled  the  nation  as  by 
an  electric  shock,  and  galvanized  into  life  its  dor- 
mant and  dying  patriotism.  But  how  came  it 
dormant  and  dying?  I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm, 
that  one  of  the  chief  causes  was  our  defective 
system  of  education.  Seven  years  ago  there  was 
scarcely  an  American  college  in  which  more  than 


290      PRESIDENT    GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

four  weeks  out  of  the  four-years'  course  were  de- 
voted to  studying  the  government  and  history  of 
the  United  States.  For  this  defect  of  our  educa- 
tional system  I  have  neither  respect  nor  tolera- 
tion. It  is  far  inferior  to  that  of  Persia  three 
thousand  years  ago.  The  uncultivated  tribes  of 
Greece,  Rome,  Libya,  and  Germany,  surpassed  us 
in  this  respect.  Grecian  children  were  taught  to 
reverence  and  emulate  the  virtues  of  their  ances- 
tors. Our  educational  forces  are  so  wielded  as  to 
teach  our  children  to  admire  most  that  which  is 
foreign  and  fabulous  and  dead.  I  have  recently 
examined  the  catalogue  of  a  leading  New-Eng- 
land college,  in  which  the  geography  and  history 
of  Greece  and  Rome  are  required  to  be  studied 
five  terms ;  but  neither  the  history  nor  the  geogra- 
phy of  the  United  States  is  named  in  the  college 
course,  or  required  as  a  condition  of  admission. 
Our  American  children  must  know  all  the  classic 
rivers,  from  the  Scamander  to  the  Yellow  Tiber ; 
must  tell  you  the  length  of  the  Appian  Way,  and 
of  the  canal  over  which  Horace  and  Virgil  sailed 
on  their  journey  to  Brundusium :  but  he  may  be 
crowned  with  baccalaureate  honors  without  hav- 
ing heard,  since  his  first  moment  of  Freshman 
life,  one  word  concerning  the  one  hundred  and 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  291 

twenty-two  thousand  miles  of  coast  and  river 
navigation,  the  six  thousand  miles  of  canal,  and 
the  thirty-five  thousand  miles  of  railroad,  which 
indicate  both  the  prosperity  and  the  possibilities 
of  his  own  country. 

It  is  well  to  know  the  history  of  those  magnifi- 
cent nations  whose  origin  is  lost  in  fable,  and 
whose  epitaphs  were  written  a  thousand  years 
ago ;  but,  if  we  cannot  know  both,  it  is  far  better 
to  study  the  history  of  our  own  nation,  whose 
origin  we  can  trace  to  the  freest  and  noblest  aspi- 
rations of  the  human  heart,  —  a  nation  that  was 
formed  from  hardiest,  purest,  and  most  enduring 
elements  of  European  civilization ;  a  nation  that, 
by  its  faith  and  courage,  has  dared  and  accom- 
plished more  for  the  human  race  in  a  single 
century  than  Europe  accomplished  in  the  first 
thousand  years  of  the  Christian  era.  The  New- 
England  township  was  the  type  after  which  our 
Federal  Government  was  modelled ;  yet  it  would 
be  rare  to  find  a  college  student  who  can  make  a 
comprehensive  and  intelligent  statement  of  the 
municipal  organization  of  the  township  in  which 
he  was  born,  and  tell  you  by  what  officers  its  legis- 
lative, judicial,  and  executive  functions  are  admin- 
istered. One-half  of  the  time  which  is  now  almost 


292      PKESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

wholly  wasted  in  district  schools  on  English  gram- 
mar, attempted  at  too  early  an  age,  would  be  suf- 
ficient to  teach  our  children  to  love  the  Republic, 
and  to  become  its  loyal  and  life-long  supporters. 
After  the  bloody  baptism  from  which  the  nation 
has  arisen  to  a  higher  and  nobler  life,  if  this 
shameful  defect  in  our  system  of  education  be  not 
speedily  remedied,  we  shall  deserve  the  infinite 
contempt  of  future  generations.  I  insist  that  it 
should  be  made  an  indispensable  condition  of 
graduation  in  every  American  college,  that  the 
student  must  understand  the  history  of  this  conti- 
nent since  its  discovery  by  Europeans ;  the  origin 
and  history  of  the  United  States,  its  constitution 
of  government,  the  struggles  through  which  it  has 
passed,  and  the  rights  and  duties  of  citizens  who 
are  to  determine  its  destiny  and  share  its  glory. 

Having  thus  gained  the  knowledge  which  is 
necessary  to  life,  health,  industry,  and  citizenship, 
the  student  is  prepared  to  enter  a  wider  and 
grander  field  of  thought.  If  he  desires  that  large 
and  liberal  culture  which  will  call  into  activity  all 
his  powers,  and  make  the  most  of  the  material 
God  has  given  him,  he  must  study  deeply  and 
earnestly  the  intellectual,  the  moral,  the  religious, 
and  the  aesthetic  nature  of  man ;  his  relations  to 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  293 

nature,  to  civilization  past  and  present  ;  and, 
above  all,  his  relations  to  God.  These  should 
occupy,  nearly,  if  not  fully,  half  the  time  of  his 
college  course.  In  connection  with  the  philosophy 
of  the  mind,  he  should  study  logic,  the  pure  mathe- 
matics, and  the  general  laws  of  thought.  In  con- 
nection with  moral  philosophy,  he  should  study 
political  and  social  ethics,  a  science  so  little 
known  either  in  colleges  or  congresses.  Prominent 
among  all  the  rest,  should  be  his  study  of  the 
wonderful  history  of  the  human  race,  in  its  slow 
and  toilsome  march  across  the  centuries,  —  now 
buried  in  ignorance,  superstition,  and  crime  ;  now 
rising  to  the  sublimity  of  heroism,  and  catching  a 
glimpse  of  a  better  destiny ;  now  turning  remorse- 
lessly away  from,  and  leaving  to  perish,  empires 
and  civilizations  in  which  it  had  invested  its  faith 
and  courage  and  boundless  energy  for  a  thousand 
years,  and  plunging  into  the  forests  of  Germany, 
Gaul,  and  Britain,  to  build  for  itself  new  empires, 
better  fitted  for  its  new  aspirations ;  and  at  last 
crossing  three  thousand  miles  of  unknown  sea, 
and  building  in  the  wilderness  of  a  new  hemi- 
sphere its  latest  and  proudest  monuments.  To 
know  this  as  it  ought  to  be  known,  requires  not 
only  a  knowledge  of  general  history,  but  a 


294      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

thorough  understanding  of  such  works  as  Guizot's 
"  History  of  Civilization"  and  Draper's  "  Intel- 
lectual Development  of  Europe,"  and  also  the 
rich  literature  of  ancient  and  modern  nations. 

Of  course,  our  colleges  cannot  be  expected  to 
lead  the  student  through  all  the  paths  of  this 
great  field  of  learning ;  but  they  should  at  least 
point  out  its  boundaries,  and  let  him  taste  a  few 
clusters  from  its  richest  vines. 

Finally,  in  rounding  up  the  measure  of  his 
work,  the  student  should  crown  his  education 
with  that  aesthetic  culture  which  will  unfold  to 
him  the  delights  of  nature  and  art,  and  make  his 
mind  and  heart  a  fit  temple  where  the  immortal 
spirit  of  Beauty  may  dwell  forever. 

While  acquiring  this  kind  of  knowledge,  the 
student  is  on  a  perpetual  voyage  of  discovery,  — 
searching  what  he  is,  and  what  he  may  become  ; 
how  he  is  related  to  the  universe,  and  how  the 
harmonies  of  the  outer  world  respond  to  the  voice 
within  him.  It  is  in  this  range  of  study  that  he 
learns  most  fully  his  own  tastes  and  aptitudes  — 
and  generally  determines  what  his  work  in  life 
shall  be. 

The  last  item  in  the  classification  I  have  sug- 
gested, that  special  knowledge  which  is  ne.cessary 


COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  295 

to  fit  a  man  for  the  particular  profession  or  calling 
he  may  adopt,  I  cannot  discuss  here,  as  it  lies 
outside  the  field  of  general  education ;  but  I  will 
make  one  suggestion  to  any  of  the  young  gentle- 
men before  me  who  may  intend  to  choose,  as  his 
life-work,  some  one  of  the  learned  professions. 
You  will  make  a  fatal  mistake  if  you  make  only 
the  same  preparations  which  your  predecessors 
made  fifty  or  even  ten  years  ago.  Each  genera- 
tion must  have  a  higher  cultivation  than  the  pre- 
ceding one,  in  order  to  be  equally  successful ;  and 
each  must  be  educated  for  his  own  times.  If  you 
become  a  lawyer,  you  must  remember  that  the 
science  of  law  is  not  fixed  like  geometry,  but  is 
a  growth  which  keeps  pace  with  the  progress  of 
society.  The  developments  of  the  late  war  will 
make  it  necessary  to  re-write  many  of  the  leading 
chapters  of  international  and  maritime  law.  The 
destruction  of  slavery  and  the  enfranchisement  of 
four  millions  of  colored  men  will  almost  revolu- 
tionize American  jurisprudence.  If  Webster  were 
now  at  the  bar,  in  the  full  glory  of  his  strength, 
he  would  be  compelled  to  reconstruct  the  whole 
fabric  of  his  legal  learning.  Similar  changes  are 
occurring,  both  in  the  medical  and  military  pro- 
fessions. Ten  years  hence  the  young  surgeon  will 


296      PRESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

hardly  venture  to  open  an  office  till  he  has  studied 
thoroughly  the  medical  and  surgical  history  of 
the  late  war.  Since  the  experience  at  Sumter 
and  Wagner,  no  nation  will  again  build  fortifica- 
tions of.  costly  masonry ;  for  they  have  learned 
that  earth-works  are  not  only  cheaper,  but  a  better 
defence  against  artillery.  The  text-books  011 
military  engineering  must  be  re-written.  Our 
Spencer  rifle  and  Prussian  needle-gun  have  revo- 
lutionized, both  the  manufacture  and  the  manual 
of  arms ;  and  no  great  battle  will  ever  again  be 
fought  with  muzzle-loading  muskets.  Napoleon, 
at  the  head  of  his  Old  Guard,  could  to-day  win  no 
Austerlitz  till  he  had  read  the  military  history  of 
the  last  six  years. 

It  may  perhaps  be  thought  that  the  suggestion 
I  have  made  concerning  the  professions  will  not 
apply  to  the  work  of  the  Christian  minister,  whose 
principal  text-book  is  a  divine  and  perfect  revela- 
tion ;  but,  in  my  judgment,  the  remark  applies  to 
the  clerical  profession  with  even  more  force  than 
to  any  other.  There  is  no  department  of  his  du- 
ties in  which  he  does  not  need  the  fullest  and  the 
latest  knowledge.  He  is  pledged  to  the  defence 
of  revelation  and  religion ;  but  it  will  not  avail 
him  to  be  able  to  answer  the  objections  of  Hume 


COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  297 

and  Voltaire.  The  arguments  of  Paley  were  not 
written  to  answer  the  scepticisms  of  to-day.  His 
"  Natural  Theology "  is  now  less  valuable  than 
Hugh  Miller's  "Footprints  of  the  Creator,"  or 
Guyot's  lectures  on  "Earth  and  Man."  The  men 
and  women  of  to-day  know  but  little,  and  care 
less,  about  the  thousand  abstract  questions  of 
polemic  theology  which  puzzled  the  heads  and 
wearied  the  hearts  of  our  Puritan  fathers  and 
mothers.  That  minister  will  make,  and  deserves 
to  make,  a  miserable  failure,  who  attempts  to  feed 
hungry  hearts  on  the  dead  dogmas  of  the  past. 
More  than  that  of  any  other  man  it  is  his  duty  to 
march  abreast  with  the  advanced  thinkers  of  his 
time,  and  be  not  only  a  learner,  but  a  teacher,  of 
its  science,  its  literature,  and  its  criticism. 

But  I  return  to  the  main  question  before  me. 
Having  endeavored  to  state  what  kinds  of  knowl- 
edge should  be  the  objects  of  a  liberal  education, 
I  shall  next  inquire  how  well  the  course  of  study 
in  American  colleges  is  adapted  to  the  attainment 
of  these  objects.  In  discussing  this  question,  I  do 
not  forget  that  he  is  deemed  a  rash  and  imprudent 
man  who  invades  with  suggestions  of  change 
these  venerable  sanctuaries  of  learning.  Let  him 
venture  to  suggest  that  much  of  the  wisdom  there 


298      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

taught  is  foolishness,  and  he  may  hear  from  the 
college  chapels  of  the  land,  in  good  Virgilian 
hexameter,  the  warning  cry,  "  Procul  0!  procul 
este  profani  !  "  Happy  for  him  if  the  whole  body 
of  alumni  do  not  with  equal  pedantry  respond  in 
Horatian  verse,  "Fenum  habet  in  cornu;  longe 
fuge."  But  I  protest  that  a  friend  of  American 
education  may  suggest  changes  in  our  college 
studies  without  committing  profanation,  or  carry- 
ing hay  on  his  horns.  Our  colleges  have  done, 
and  are  doing,  a  noble  work,  for  which  they 
deserve  the  thanks  of  the  nation ;  but  he  is  not 
their  enemy  who  suggests  that  they  ought  to  do 
much  better.  As  an  alumnus  of  one  which  I 
shall  always  reverence,  and  as  a  friend  of  all,  I 
will  venture  to  discuss  the  work  they  are  doing. 
I  have  examined  some  twenty  catalogues  of  East- 
ern, Western,  and  Southern  colleges,  and  find  the 
subjects  taught,  and  the  relative  time  given  to 
each,  about  the  same  in  all.  The  chief  difference 
is  in  the  quantity  of  work  required.  I  will  take 
Harvard  as  a  representative ;  it  being  the  oldest  of 
our  colleges,  and  certainly  requiring  as  much  study 
as  any  other.  Remembering  that  the  standard  by 
which  we  measure  a  student's  work  for  one  day 
is  three  recitations  of  one  hour  each,  and  that  his 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  299 

year  usually  consists  of  three  terms  of  thirteen  or 
fourteen  weeks  each,  for  convenience'  sake  I  will 
divide  the  work  required  to  admit  him  to  college, 
and  after  four  years  to  graduate  him,  into  two 


1st,  That  which  belongs  to  the  study  of  Latin 
and  Greek  ;  and,  2d,  That  which  does  not. 

Now,  from  the  annual  catalogue  of  Harvard  for 
1866-67  (p.  26),  I  find  that  the  candidate  for 
admission  to  the  Freshman  class  must  be  exam- 
ined in  what  will  require  the  study  of  eight  terms 
in  Latin,  six  in  Greek,  one  in  ancient  geography, 
one  in  Grecian  history,  and  one  in  Roman  history, 
which  make  seventeen  terms  in  the  studies  of 
class  first.  Under  the  head  of  class  second  the 
candidate  is  required  to  be  examined  in  reading, 
in  common-school  arithmetic  and  geography,  in 
one  term's  study  of  algebra,  and  one  term  of 
geometry.  English  grammar  is  not  mentioned. 

Thus,  after  studying  the  elementary  branches 
which  are  taught  in  all  our  common  schools,  it 
requires  about  two  years  and  a  half  of  study  to 
enter  a  college ;  and  of  that  study  seventeen 
parts  are  devoted  to  the  language,  history,  and 
geography  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  two  parts  to 
all  other  subjects ! 


300      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

Reducing  the  Harvard  year  to  the  usual  divis- 
ion of  three  terms,  the  analysis  of  the  work  will 
be  found  as  follows :  not  less  than  nine  terms  of 
Latin  (there  may  be  twelve  if  the  student  chooses 
it) ;  not  less  than  six  terms  of  Greek  (but  twelve 
if  he  chooses  it) ;  and  he  may  elect,  in  addition, 
three  terms  in  Roman  history.  With  the  average 
of  three  recitations  per  day,  and  three  terms  per 
year,  we  may  say  that  the  whole  work  of  college 
study  consists  of  thirty-six  parts.  Not  less  than 
fifteen  of  these  must  be  devoted  to  Latin  and 
Greek,  and  not  more  than  twenty-one  to  all  other 
subjects.  If  the  student  chooses,  he  may  devote 
twenty-four  parts  to  Latin  and  Greek,  and  twelve 
to  all  other  subjects.  Taking  the  whole  six  and 
a  half  years  of  preparatory  and  college  study,  we 
find,  that,  to  earn  a  bachelor's  diploma  at  Har- 
vard, a  young  man,  after  leaving  the  district 
school,  must  devote  four-sevenths  of  all  his  labor 
to  Greece  and  Rome. 

Now,  what  do  we  find  in  our  second,  or  un- 
dassical,  list?  It  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  what 
it  does  not  contain.  In  the  whole  programme  of 
study,  lectures  included,  no  mention  whatever  is 
made  of  physical  geography,  of  anatomy,  physi- 
ology, or  the  general  history  of  the  United  States. 


COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  301 

A  few  weeks  of  the  Senior  year  given  to  Guizot 
and  the  history  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  a 
lecture  on  general  history  once  a  week  during 
half  that  year,  furnish  all  that  the  graduate  of 
Harvard  is  required  to  know  of  his  own  country 
and  the  living  nations  of  the  earth. 

He  must  apply  years  of  arduous  labor  to  the 
history,  oratory,  and  poetry  of  Greece  and  Rome ; 
but  he  is  not  required  to  cull  a  single  flower  from 
the  rich  fields  of  our  own  literature.  English 
literature  is  not  named  in  the  curriculum,  except 
that  the  student  may,  if  he  chooses,  attend  a  few 
general  lectures  on  modern  literature. 

Such  are  some  of  the  facts  in  reference  to  the 
educational  work  of  our  most  venerable  college, 
where  there  is  probably  concentrated  more  general 
and  special  culture  than  at  any  other  in  America. 

I  think  it  probable,  that  in  some  of  the  colleges 
the  proportion  of  Latin  and  Greek  to  other  studies 
may  be  less ;  but  I  believe  that  in  none  of  them 
the  preparatory  and  college  work  devoted  to  these 
two  languages  is  less  than  half  of  all  the  work 
required. 

Now,  the  bare  statement  of  this  fact  should 
challenge,  and  must  challenge,  the  attention  of 
every  thoughtful  man  in  the  nation.  No  wonder 


302      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND    EDUCATION. 

that  men  are  demanding,  with  an  earnestness  that 
will  not  be  repressed,  to  know  how  it  happens, 
and  why  it  happens,  that,  placing  in  one  end  of 
the  balance  all  the  mathematical  studies ;  all  the 
physical  sciences,  in  their  recent  rapid  develop- 
ments ;  all  the  study  of  the  human  mind  and 
the  laws  of  thought ;  all  the  principles  of  political 
economy  and  social  science,  which  underlie  the 
commerce  and  industry,  and  shape  the  legislation, 
of  nations ;  the  history  of  our  own  nation,  —  its 
constitution  of  government  and  its  great  indus- 
trial interests;  all  the  literature  and  history  of 
modern  civilization,  —  placing  all  this,  I  say,  in 
one  end  of  the  balance,  they  kick  the  beam  when 
Greece  and  Rome  are  placed  in  the  other.  I 
hasten  to  say  that  I  make  no  attack  upon  the 
study  of  these  noble  languages  as  an  important 
and  necessary  part  of  a  liberal  education.  I  have 
no  sympathy  with  that  sentiment  which  would 
drive  them  from  academy  and  college  as  a  part 
of  the  dead  past  that  should  bury  its  dead.  It 
is  the  proportion  of  the  work  given  to  them  of 
which  I  complain. 

These  studies  hold  their  relative  rank  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  tyranny  of  custom.  Each  new  col- 
lege is  modelled  after  the  older  ones,  and  all  in 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  303 

America  have  been  patterned  on  an  humble  scale 
after  the  universities  of  Europe.  The  prominence 
given  to  Latin  and  Greek  at  the  founding  of  these 
universities  was  a  matter  of  inexorable  necessity. 
The  continuance  of  the  same,  or  anywhere  near 
the  same,  relative  prominence  to-day,  is  both  un- 
necessary and  indefensible.  I  appeal  to  history 
for  the  proof  of  these  assertions. 

Near  the  close  of  the  fifth  century  we  date  the 
beginning  of  those  dark  ages  which  enveloped  the 
whole  world  for  a  thousand  years.  The  human 
race  seemed  stricken  with  intellectual  paralysis. 
The  noble  language  of  the  Csesars,  corrupted  by 
a  hundred  barbarous  dialects,  ceased  to  be  a  living 
tongue  long  before  the.  modern  languages  of 
Europe  had  been  reduced  to  writing. 

In  Italy  the  Latin  died  in  the  tenth  century ; 
but  the  oldest  document  known  to  exist  in  Italian 
was  not  written  till  the  year  1200.  Italian  did 
not  really  take  its  place  in  the  family  of  written 
languages  till  a  century  later,  when  it  was  crys- 
tallized into  form  and  made  immortal  by  the  genius 
of  Dante  and  Petrarch. 

The  Spanish  was  not  a  written  language  till  the 
year  1200,  and  was  scarcely  known  to  Europe  till 
Cervantes  convulsed  the  world  with  laughter  in 
1605. 


304      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

The  Latin  ceased  to  be  spoken  by  the  people 
of  France  in  the  tenth  century,  and  French  was 
not  a  written  language  till  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  Pascal,  who  died  in  1662,  is 
called  the  father  of  modern  French  prose. 

The  German,  as  a  literary  language,  dates  from 
Luther,  who  died  in  1546.  It  was  one  of  his 
mortal  sins  against  Rome,  that  he  translated  the 
Bible  into  the  uncouth  and  vulgar  tongue  of 
Germany. 

Our  own  language  is  also  of  recent  origin. 
Richard  I.  of  England,  who  died  in  1199,  never 
spoke  a  word  of  English  in  his  life.  Our  mother- 
tongue  was  never  heard  in  an  English  court  of 
justice  till  1362.  The  statutes  of  England  were 
not  written  in  English  till  three  years  before 
Columbus  landed  in  the  New  World.  No  philolo- 
gist dates  modern  English  farther  back  than  1500. 
Sir  Thomas  More,  the  author  of  "Utopia,"  who 
died  in  1535,  was  the  father  of  English  prose. 

The  dark  ages  were  the  sleep  of  the  world, 
while  the  languages  of  the  modern  world  were 
being  bom  out  of  chaos. 

The  first  glimmer  of  dawn  was  in  the  twelfth 
century,  when  in  Paris,  Oxford,  and  other  parts 
of  Europe,  universities  were  established.  The 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  305 

fifteenth  century  was  spent  in  saving  the  rem- 
nants of  classic  learning  which  had  been  locked 
up  in  the  cells  of  monks,  —  the  Greek  at  Constan- 
tinople, and  the  Latin  in  the  cloisters  of  Western 
Europe. 

During  the  first  three  hundred  years  of  the  life 
of  the  older  universities,  it  is  almost  literally  true, 
that  no  modern  tongue  had  become  a  written  lan- 
guage. The  learning  of  Europe  was  in  Latin  and 
Greek.  In  order  to  study  either  science  or  litera- 
ture, these  languages  must  first  be  learned.  Eu- 
ropean writers  continued  to  use  Latin  long  after 
the  modern  languages  were  fully  established. 
Even  Milton's  great  "Defence  of  the  People  of 
England"  was  written  in  Latin, — as  were  also 
the  "Principia,"  and  other  scientific  works  of 
Newton,  who  died  in  1727. 

The  pride  of  learned  corporations,  the  spirit  of 
exclusiveness  among  learned  men,  and  their  want 
of  sympathy  with  the  mass  of  the  people,  united 
to  maintain  Latin  as  the  language  of  learning 
long  after  its  use  was  defensible. 

Now,  mark  the  contrast  between  the  objects 
and  demands  of  education  when  the  European 
universities  were  founded,  —  or  even  when  Har- 
vard was  founded,  —  and  its  demands  at  the  pres- 


306      PBESIDENT  GABFIELD  AND   EDUCATION. 

ent  time.  We  have  a  family  of  modern  languages 
almost  equal  in  force  and  perfection  to  the  classic 
tongues,  and  a  modern  literature,  which,  if  less 
perfect  in  aesthetic  form  than  the  ancient,  is  im- 
measurably richer  in  truth,  and  is  filled  with  the 
noblest  and  bravest  thoughts  of  the  world.  When 
the  universities  were  founded,  modern  science 
was  not  born.  Scarcely  a  generation  has  passed 
since  then,  without  adding  some  new  science  to 
the  circle  of  knowledge.  As  late  as  1809  "  The 
Edinburgh  Review  "  declared  that  "  lectures  upon 
political  economy  would  be  discouraged  in  Ox- 
ford, probably  despised,  probably  not  permitted." 
At  a  much  later  date,  there  was  no  text-book  in 
the  United  States  on  that  subject.  The  claims 
of  Latin  and  Greek  to  the  chief  place  in  the  cur- 
riculum have  been  gradually  growing  less,  and  the 
importance  of  other  knowledge  has  been  con- 
stantly increasing;  but  the  colleges  have  gen- 
erally opposed  all  innovations,  and  still  cling  to 
the  old  ways  with  stubborn  conservatism.  Some 
concessions,  however,  have  been  made  to  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  times,  both  in  Europe  and  Ameri- 
ca. Harvard  would  hardly  venture  to  enforce  its 
law  (which  prevailed  long  after  Cotton  Mather's 
day),  forbidding  its  students  to  speak  English 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  307 

within  the  college  limits,  under  any  pretext 
whatever;  and  British  Cantabs  have  had  their 
task  of  composing  hexameters  in  bad  Latin  re- 
duced by  a  few  thousand  verses  during  the  last 
century. 

It  costs  me  a  struggle  to  say  any  thing  on  this 
subject  which  may  be  regarded  with  favor  by 
those  who  would  reject  the  classics  altogether, 
for  I  have  read  them  and  taught  them  with  a 
pleasure  and  relish  which  few  other  pursuits 
have  ever  afforded  me ;  but  I  am  persuaded  that 
their  supporters  must  soon  submit  to  a  re-adjust- 
ment of  their  relations  to  college  study,  or  they 
may  be  driven  from  the  course  altogether.  There 
are  most  weighty  reasons  why  Lathi  and  Greek 
should  be  retained  as  part  of  a  liberal  education. 
He  who  would  study  our  own  language  pro- 
foundly must  not  forget  that  nearly  thirty  per 
cent  of  its  words  are  of  Latin  origin,  —  that  the 
study  of  Latin  is  the  study  of  universal  grammar, 
and  renders  the  acquisition  of  any  modern  lan- 
guage an  easy  task,  and  is  indispensable  to  the 
teacher  of  language  and  literature,  and  to  other 
professional  men. 

Greek  is  perhaps  the  most  perfect  instrument 
of  thought  ever  invented  by  man,  and  its  litera- 


308      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

ture  has  never  been  equalled  in  purity  of  style, 
and  boldness  of  expression.  As  a  means  of  intel- 
lectual discipline,  its  value  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated. To  take  a  long  and  complicated  sen- 
tence in  Greek,  to  study  each  word  in  its  meanings, 
inflections,  and  relations,  and  to  build  up  in  the 
mind,  out  of  these  polished  materials,  a  sentence 
perfect  as  a  temple,  and  filled  with  Greek  thought 
which  has  dwelt  there  two  thousand  years,  is 
almost  an  act  of  creation  :  it  calls  into  activity  all 
the  faculties  of  the  mind. 

That  the  Christian  Oracles  have  .come  down  to 
us  in  Greek,  will  make  Greek  scholars  forever  a 
necessity. 

These  studies,  then,  should  not  be  neglected: 
they  should  neither  devour  nor  be  devoured.  I 
insist  they  can  be  made  more  valuable,  and  at  the 
same  time  less  prominent,  than  they  now  are.  A 
large  part  of  the  labor  now  bestowed  upon  them 
is  devoted,  not  to  learning  the  genius  and  spirit 
of  the  language,  but  is  more  than  wasted  on  pedan- 
tic trifles.  More  than  half  a  century  ago,  in  his 
essay  entitled  "  Professional  Education,"  Sydney 
Smith  lashed  this  trifling  as  it  deserves.  Speak- 
ing of  classical  Englishmen,  he  says,  — 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  309 

"  Their  minds  have  been  so  completely  possessed  of  ex- 
aggerated notions  of 'classical  learning,  that  they  have  not 
been  able,  in  the  great  school  of  the  world,  to  form  any 
other  notion  of  real  greatness.  Attend,  too,  to  the  public 
feelings;  look  to  all  the  terms  of  applause.  A  learned  man! 
a  scholar  !  a  man  of  erudition  !  Upon  whom  are  these  epi- 
thets of  approbation  bestowed?  Are  they  given  to  men 
acquainted  with  the  science  of  government,  thoroughly 
masters  of  the  geographical  and  commercial  relations  of 
Europe?  to  men  who  know  the  properties  of  bodies  and 
their  action  upon  each  other  ?  No :  this  is  not  learning  ;  it 
is  chemistry  or  political  economy,  not  learning.  The  distin- 
guishing abstract  term,  the  epithet  of  scholar,  is  reserved  for 
him  who  writes  on  the  JEolic  reduplication,  and  is  familiar 
with  the  Sylburgian  method  of  arranging  defectives  in  u  and 
fit.  .  .  .  The  object  of  the  young  Englishman  is  not  to 
reason,  to  imagine,  or  to  invent,  but  to  conjugate,  decline, 
and  derive.  The  situations  of  imaginary  glory  which  he 
draws  for  himself  are  the  detection  of  an  anapest  in  the 
wrong  place,  or  the  restoration  of  a  dative  case  which  Cran- 
zius  has  passed  over  and  the  never-dying  Ernesti  failed  to 
observe.  If  a  young  classic  of  this  kind  were  to  meet  the 
greatest  chemist,  or  the  greatest  mechanician,  or  the  most 
profound  political  economist  of  his  time,  in  company  with 
the  greatest  Greek  scholar,  would  the  slightest  comparison 
between  them  ever  come  across  his  mind  ?  Would  he  ever 
dream  that  such  men  as  Adam  Smith  and  Lavoisier  were 
equal  in  dignity  of  understanding  to,  or  of  the  same  utility 
as,  Bentley  or  Heyne  ?  We  are  inclined  to  think  that  the 
feeling  excited  would  be  a  good  deal  like  that  which  was 


310      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

expressed  by  Dr.  George  about  the  praises  of  the  great  King 
of  Prussia,  who  entertained  considerable  doubts  whether  the 
king,  with  all  his  victories,  knew  how  to  conjugate  a  Greek 
verb  in  /M." 

He  concludes  another  essay,  written  in  1826, 
with  these  words :  — 

"If  there  is  any  thing  which  fills  reflecting  men  with 
melancholy  and  regret,  it  is  the  waste  of  mortal  time,  paren- 
tal money,  and  puerile  happiness,  in  the  present  method  of 
pursuing  Latin  and  Greek." 

To  write  verse  in  these  languages;  to  study 
elaborate  theories  of  the  Greek  accent  and  the 
ancient  pronunciation  of  both  Greek  and  Latin, 
which  no  one  can  ever  know  he  has  discovered, 
and  which  would  be  utterly  valueless  if  he  did  dis- 
cover it ;  to  toil  over  the  innumerable  exceptions 
to  the  arbitrary  rules  of  poetic  quantity,  which 
few  succeed  in  learning,  and  none  remember,  — 
these,  and  a  thousand  other  similar  things  which 
crowd  the  pages  of  Zumpt  and  Kiihner,  no  more 
constitute  a  knowledge  of  the  spirit  and  genius  of 
the  Greek  and  Latin  languages  than  counting  the 
number  of  threads  to  the  square  inch  in  a  man's 
coat  and  the  number  of  pegs  in  his  boots  makes 
us  acquainted  with  his  moral  and  intellectual  char- 


COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  311 

acter.  The  greatest  literary  monuments  of  Greece 
existed  hundreds  of  years  before  the  science  of 
grammar  was  born.  Plato  and  Thucydides  had  a 
tolerable  acquaintance  with  the  Greek  language  ; 
but  Crosby  goes  far  beyond  their  depth. 

Our  colleges  should  require  a  student  to  under- 
stand thoroughly  the  structure,  idioms,  and  spirit 
of  these  languages,  and  to  be  able,  by  the  aid  of 
a  lexicon,  to  analyze  and  translate  them  with 
readiness  and  elegance.  They  should  give  him 
the  key  to  the  storehouse  of  ancient  literature, 
that  he  may  explore  its  treasures  for  himself  in 
after-life.  This  can  be  done  in  two  years  less  than 
the  usual  time,  and  nearly  as  well  as  it  is  now  done. 

I  am  glad  to  inform  you,  young  gentlemen,  that 
the  trustees  of  the  institution  in  this  place  have 
this  day  resolved  that  in  the  course  of  study  to  be 
pursued  here,  Latin  and  Greek  shall  not  be  re- 
quired after  the  Freshman  year.  They  must  be 
studied  the  usual  time  as  a  requisite  to  admission, 
and  they  may  be  carried  farther  than  Freshman 
year  as  elective  studies ;  but  in  the  regular  course 
their  places  will  be  supplied  by  some  of  the  stud- 
ies I  have  already  mentioned.  Three  or  four 
terms  in  general  literature  will  teach  you  that  the 
republic  of  letters  is  larger  than  Greece  or  Rome. 


312      PRESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND    EDUCATION. 

The  board  of  trustees  have  been  strengthened  in 
the  position  they  have  taken,  by  the  fact  that  a 
similar  course  for  the  future  has  recently  been 
announced  by  the  authorities  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. Within  the  last  six  days,  I  have  received 
a  circular  from  the  secretary  of  that  venerable 
college,  which  announces  that  two-thirds  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  are  hereafter  to  be  stricken  from 
the  list  of  required  studies  of  the  college  course. 

I  rejoice  that  the  movement  has  begun.  Other 
colleges  must  follow  the  example ;  and  the  day 
will  not  be  far  distant  when  it  shall  be  the  pride 
of  a  scholar  that  he  is  also  a  worker,  and  when 
the  worker  shall  not  refuse  to  become  a  scholar 
because  he  despises  a  trifler. 

I  congratulate  you  that  this  change  does  not 
reduce  the  amount  of  labor  required  of  you.  If 
it  did,  I  should  deplore  it.  I  beseech  you  to  re- 
member that  the  genius  of  success  is  still  the 
genius  of  labor.  If  hard  work  is  not  another 
name  for  talent,  it  is  the  best  possible  substitute 
for  it.  In  the  long-run,  the  chief  difference  in 
men  will  be  found  in  the  amount  of  work  they  do. 
Do  not  trust  to  what  lazy  men  call  the  spur  of 
the  occasion.  If  you  wish  to  wear  spurs  in  the 
tournament  of  life,  you  must  buckle  them  to  your 
own  heels  before  you  enter  the  lists. 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION.  313 

Men  look  with  admiring  wonder  upon  a  great 
intellectual  effort,  like  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne, 
and  seem  to  think  that  it  leaped  into  life  by  the 
inspiration  of  the  moment.  But  if  by  some  intel- 
lectual chemistry  we  could  resolve  that  masterly 
speech  into  its 'several  elements  of  power,  and 
trace  each  to  its  source,  we  should  find  that  every 
constituent  force  had  been  elaborated  twenty 
years  before,  —  it  may  be,  in  some  hour  of  earnest 
intellectual  labor.  Occasion  may  be  the  bugle- 
call  that  summons  an  army  to  battle ;  but  the  blast 
of  a  bugle  cannot  ever  make  soldiers,  or  win 
victories. 

And  finally,  young  gentlemen,  learn  to  cultivate 
a  wise  reliance,  based  not  on  what  you  hope,  but 
on  what  you  perform.  It  has  long  been  the  habit 
of  this  institution,  if  I  may  so  speak,  to  throw 
young  men  overboard,  and  let  them  sink  or  swim. 
None  have  yet  drowned  who  were  worth  the 
saving.  I  hope  the  practice  will  be  continued, 
and  that  you  will  not  rely  upon  outside  help  for 
growth  or  success.  Give  crutches  to  cripples; 
but  go  you  forth  with  brave  true  hearts,  knowing 
that  fortune  dwells  in  your  brain  and  muscle,  and 
that  labor  is  the  only  human  symbol  of  Omnip- 
otence. 


vm. 

Elements  0f  Success. 

ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  STUDENTS  OF  THE  SPENOERIAN 

.  BUSINESS  COLLEGE,  WASHINGTON,  D.O., 

JUNE  29,  1868. 


vni. 

ELEMENTS  OF  SUCCESS. 

T  ADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN,  —  I  have  con- 

-*-^  sented  to  address  you  this  evening,  chiefly 
for  two  reasons,  —  one  of  them  personal  to  myself, 
the  other  public.  The  personal  reason  is,  that  I 
have  a -deep  and  peculiar  sympathy  with  young 
people  who  are  engaged  in  any -department  of  edu- 
cation. Their  pursuits  are  to  me,  not  only  matters 
of  deep  interest,  but  of  profound  mystery.  It  will 
not,  perhaps,  flatter  you  older  people  when  I  say 
that  I  have  far  less  interest  in  you  than  in  these 
young  people.  With  us,  the  great  questions  of 
life  are  measurably  settled.  Our  days  go  on,  their 
shadows  lengthening  as  we  approach  nearer  to  the 
evening  which  will  soon  deepen  into  the  night  of 
life  ;  but  before  these  young  people  are  the  dawn, 
the  sunrise,  the  coming  noon,  all  the  wonders  and 
mysteries  of  life.  For  ourselves,  much  of  all  that 
belongs  to  the  possibilities  of  life  is  ended ;  and 
the  very  angels  look  down  upon  us  with  less  curi- 

317 


318      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

osity  than  upon  these  whose  lives  are  just  opening. 
Pardon  me,  then,  if  I  feel  more  interest  in  them 
than  in  you. 

I  feel  a  profounder  reverence  for  a  boy  than  for 
a  man.  I  never  meet  a  ragged  boy  of  the  street 
without  feeling  that  I  may  owe  him  a  salute,  for  I 
know  not  what  possibilities  may  be  buttoned  up 
under  his  shabby  coat.  When  I  meet  you  in  the 
full  flush  of  mature  life,  I  see  nearly  all  there  is 
of  you ;  but  among  these  boys  are  the  great  men 
of  the  future,  —  the  heroes  of  the  next  generation, 
the  philosophers,  the  statesmen,  the  philanthro- 
pists, the  great  reformers  and  moulders  of  the  next 
age.  Therefore,  I  say,  there  is  a  peculiar  charm 
to  me  in  the  exhibitions  of  young  people  engaged 
in  the  business  of  education. 

But  there  was  a  reason  of  public  policy  which 
brought  me  here  to-night ;  and  it  was  to  testify  to 
the  importance  of  these  business  colleges,  and  to 
give  two  or  three  reasons  why  they  have  been 
established  in  the  United  States.  I  wish  every 
college  president  in  the  United  States  could  hear 
the  first  reason  I  propose  to  give.  Business  col- 
leges, my  fellow-citizens,  originated  in  this  country 
as  a  protest  against  the  insufficiency  of  our  system 
of  education,  —  as  a  protest  against  the  failure,  the 


ELEMENTS  OF   SUCCESS.  319 

absolute  failure,  of  our  American  schools  and  col- 
leges to  fit  young  men  and  women  for  the  business 
of  life.  Take  the  great  classes  graduated  from 
the  leading  colleges  of  the  country  during  this 
and  the  next  month,  and  how  many,  or,  rather, 
how  few,  of  their  members  are  fitted  to  go  into 
the  practical  business  of  life,  and  transact  it  like 
sensible  men !  These  business  colleges  furnish 
their  graduates  with  a  better  education  for  practi- 
cal purposes  than  Princeton,  Harvard,  or  Yale. 

The  people  are  making  a  grave  charge  against 
our  system  of  higher  education  when  they  com- 
plain that  it  is  disconnected  from  the  active  busi- 
ness of  life.  It  is  a  charge  to  which  our  colleges 
cannot  plead  guilty,  and  live.  They  must  rectify 
the  fault,  or  miserably  fail  of  their  great  purpose. 
There  is  scarcely  a  more  pitiable  sight  than  to  see 
here  and  there  learned  men,  so  called,  who  have 
graduated  in  our  own  and  the  universities  of 
Europe  with  high  honors,  —  men  who  know  the 
whole  gamut  of  classical  learning,  who  have  sound- 
ed the  depths  of  mathematical  and  speculative 
philosophy,  —  and  yet  who  could  not  harness  a 
horse,  or  make  out  a  bill  of  sale,  if  the  world  de- 
pended upon  it. 

The   fact  is,   that  our    curriculum   of   college 


320      PRESIDENT  GAEFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

studies  was  not  based  on  modern  ideas,  and  has 
not  grown  up  to  our  modern  necessities.  The 
prevailing  system  was  established  at  a  time  when 
the  learning  of  the  world  was  in  Latin  and  Greek,  — 
when,  if  a  man  would  learn  arithmetic,  he  must 
first  learn  Latin ;  and,  if  he  would  learn  the  his- 
tory and  geography  of  his  own  country,  he  would 
acquire  that  knowledge  only  through  the  Latin 
language.  Of  course,  in  those  days,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  lay  the  foundation  of  learning  in  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  learned  languages. 

The  universities  of  Europe,  from  which  our  col- 
leges were  copied,  were  founded  before  the  modern 
languages  were  born.  The  leading  languages  of 
Europe  are  scarcely  six  hundred  years  old.  The 
reasons  for  a  course  of  study  then  are  not  good 
now.  The  old  necessities  have  passed  away.  We 
now  have  strong  and  noble  living  languages,  rich  in 
literature,  replete  with  high  and  earnest  thought, 
the  language  of  science,  religion,  and  liberty ;  and 
yet  we  bid  our  children  feed  their  spirits  on  the 
life  of  dead  ages,  instead  of  the  inspiring  life  and 
vigor  of  our  own  times.  I  do  not  object  to  clas- 
sical learning,  —  far  from  it ;  but  I  would  not  have 
it  exclude  the  living  present.  Therefore  I  wel- 
come the  business  college  in  the  form  it  has  taken 


ELEMENTS   OF   SUCCESS.  321 

in  the  United  States,  because  it  meets  an  acknowl- 
edged want,  by  affording  to  young  people  of  only 
common  scholastic  attainments,  and  even  to  the 
classes  that  graduate  from  Harvard  and  Yale,  an 
opportunity  to  learn  important  and  indispensable 
lessons  before  they  go  out  into  the  business  of  life. 

The  present  Chancellor  of  the  British  Ex- 
chequer, the  Right  Honorable  Robert  Lowe,  one 
of  the  brightest  minds  in  that  kingdom,  said  in  a 
recent  address  before  the  venerable  University  of 
Edinburgh,  "  I  was  a  few  months  ago  in  Paris,  and 
two  graduates  of  Oxford  went  with  me  to  get  our 
dinner  at  a  restaurant ;  and,  if  the  white-aproned 
waiter  had  not  been  better  educated  than  all  three 
of  us,  we  might  have  starved  to  death.  We  could 
not  ask  for  our  dinner  in  his  language,  but  fortu- 
nately he  could  ask  us  in  our  own  language  what 
we  wanted."  There  was  one  test  of  the  insuf- 
ficiency of  modern  education. 

There  is  another  reason  why  I  am  glad  that 
these  business  colleges  have  been  established  in 
this  country,  and  particularly  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington. If  there  be  any  city  on  this  continent 
where  such  institutions  are  needed  more  than  in 
any  other,  it  is  here  in  this  city,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  employees  of  the  United  States. 


322      PBESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

Allow  me,  young  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  turn 
aside  for  one  moment  to  speak  of  what  relates  to 
your  business  life.  If  I  could  speak  one  sentence 
which  could  be  echoed  through  every  department 
of  the  government,  addressing  myself  not  to 
those  in  middle  life,  whose  plans  for  the  future 
are  fixed,  but  to  those  who  are  beginning  life,  I 
would  say  to  every  young  man  and  woman  in  the 
civil  service  of  the  government,  "Hasten  by  the 
most  rapid  steps  to  get  out  of  these  departments 
into  active,  independent  business  life."  Do  not 
misunderstand  me.  Your  work  is  honorable, — 
honorable  to  yourselves,  and  necessary  to  the 
government.  I  make  no  charge  on  that  score ; 
but  to  a  young  man,  who  has  in  himself  the  mag- 
nificent possibilities  of  life,  it  is  not  fitting  that 
he  should  be  permanently  commanded :  he  should 
be  a  commander.  You  must  not  continue  to  be 
the  employed:  you  must  be  an  employer.  You 
must  be  promoted  from  the  ranks  to  the  com- 
mand. There  is  something,  young  men,  which 
you  can  command :  go  and  find  it,  and  command 
it.  You  can  at  least  command  a  horse  and  dray, 
can  be  generalissimo  of  them,  and  may  carve  out 
a  fortune  with  them.  And  I  did  not  fall  on  that 
illustration  by  accident,  young  gentlemen.  Do 


ELEMENTS  OF   SUCCESS.  323 

you  know  the  fact?  If  you  do  not,  let  me  tell 
it  you,  —  that  more  fortunes  have  been  won,  and 
fewer  failures  known,  in  the  dray  business  than 
in  wholesale  merchandising. 

Do  not,  I  beseech  you,  be  content  to  enter 
upon  any  business  which  does  not  require  and 
compel  constant  intellectual  growth.  Do  not 
enter  into  any  business  which  will  leave  you  no 
farther  advanced  mentally  than  it  found  you, — 
which  will  require  no  more  ability  and  culture  at 
the  end  than  it  did  at  the  beginning  of  twenty-five 
years.  I  ask  you  whether  your  work  in  the 
departments  is  not  mainly  of  that  kind,  and 
whether  it  must  not  continue  to  be  of  that  kind. 
If  you  take  advantage  of  our  magnificent  libra- 
ries here ;  of  the  law  colleges  or  the  medical 
colleges ;  if,  whatever  your  plans  may  be,  you 
complete  and  utilize  your  education  by  taking  a 
course  in  the  business  college ;  if  you  hold  office 
in  the  departments  for  a  few  years  to  enable  you 
to  live  while  you  obtain  a  legal,  medical,  or  busi- 
ness education,  —  you  are  doing  a  worthy  work. 
It  always  pleases  me  to  see  young  men  obtain 
such  places  for  such  a  purpose.  But,  while  I 
will  cheerfully  help  a  young  man  to  secure  such 
a  place  for  such  a  reason,  I  would  warn  him  not 


324      PRESIDENT  GABFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

to  continue  in  it,  but  to  get  out  of  it  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  take  a  place  of  active  personal 
responsibility  in  the  great  industrial  family  of  the 
nation. 

There  is  another  reason,  —  the  last  I  shall  give 
in  illustrating  the  importance  of  business  colleges, 
—  and  that  is  the  consideration  which  was  so 
beautifully  and  cogently  urged  a  few  moments 
since,  by  the  young  lady  who  delivered  the  vale- 
dictory of  her  class,  that  it  is  almost  surplusage 
to  add  a  word  to  her  discussion.  The  career 
opened  in  business  colleges,  especially  in  this  one, 
for  young  women,  is  a  most  important  and  note- 
worthy feature  of  these  institutions. 

Laugh  at  it  as  we  may,  put  it  aside  as  a  jest 
if  we  will,  keep  it  out  of  Congress  or  political 
campaigns,  still  the  woman  question  is  rising  in 
our  horizon  larger  than  the  size  of  a  man's  hand ; 
and  some  solution  ere  long  that  question  must 
find.  I  have  not  yet  committed  my  mind  to 
any  formula  that  embraces  the  whole  question. 
I  halt  On  the  threshold  of  so  great  a  problem. 
But  there  is  one  point  on  which  I  have  reached 
a  conclusion ;  and  that  is,  that  this  nation  must 
open  up  new  avenues  of  work  and  usefulness  to 
the  women  of  the  country,  so  that  everywhere 


ELEMENTS   OF  SUCCESS.  325 

they  may  have  something  to  do.  This  is,  just 
now,  infinitely  more  valuable  to  them  than  the 
platform  or  the  ballot-box.  Whatever  conclusion 
shall  be  reached  on  that  subject  by  and  by,  at 
present  the  most  valuable  gift  which  can  be 
bestowed  on  women  is  something  to  do,  which 
they  can  do  well  and  worthily,  and  thereby  main- 
tain themselves.  Therefore  I  say  that  every 
thoughtful  statesman  will  look  with  satisfaction 
upon  such  business  colleges  as  are  opening  a 
career  for  our  young  women.  On  that  score  we 
have  special  reasons  to  be  thankful  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  these  institutions. 

Now,  young  gentlemen,  let  me  for  a  moment 
address  you  touching  your  success  in  life ;  and  I 
hope  the  very  brevity  of  my  remarks  will  increase 
the  chance  of  their  making  a  lodgement  in  your 
minds.  Let  me  beg  you,  in  the  outset  of  your 
career,  to  dismiss  from  your  minds  all  ideas  of 
succeeding  by  luck.  There  is  no  more  common 
thought  among  young  people  than  that  foolish 
one,  that  by  and  by  something  will  turn  up  by 
which  they  will  suddenly  achieve  fame  or  fortune. 
No,  young  gentlemen,  things  don't  turn  up  in  this 
world  unless  somebody  turns  them  up.  Inertia  is 
one  of  the  indispensable  laws  of  matter ;  and  things 


326      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

lie  flat  where  they  are  until  by  some  intelligent 
spirit  (for  nothing  but  spirit  makes  motion  in  this 
world)  they  are  endowed  with  activity  and  life. 
Do  not  dream  that  some  good  luck  is  going  to 
happen  to  you,  and  give  you  a  fortune.  Luck  is 
an  ignis  fatuus :  you  may  follow  it  to  ruin,  but  not 
to  success.  The  great  Napoleon,  who  believed  in 
his  destiny,  followed  it  until  he  saw  his  star  go 
down  in  blackest  night,  when  the  Old  Guard 
perished  around  him,  and  Waterloo  was  lost.  A 
pound  of  pluck  is  worth  a  ton  of  luck. 

Young  men  talk  of  trusting  to  the  spur  of  the 
occasion.  That  trust  is  vain.  Occasions  cannot 
make  spurs,  young  gentlemen.  If  you  expect  to 
wear  spurs,  you  must  win  them.  If  you  wish  to 
use  them,  you  must  buckle  them  to  your  own  heels 
before  you  go  into  the  fight.  Any  success  you 
may  achieve  is  not  worth  the  having  unless  you 
fight  for  it.  Whatever  you  win  in  life  you  must 
conquer  by  your  own  efforts ;  and  then  it  is  yours, 
—  a  part  of  yourself. 

Again :  in  order  to  have  any  success  in  life,  or 
any  worthy  success,  you  must  resolve  to  carry  into 
your  work  a  fulness  of  knowledge,  —  not  merely 
a  sufficiency,  but  more  than  a  sufficiency.  In  this 
respect,  follow  the  rule  of  the  machinists.  If  they 


ELEMENTS   OP  SUCCESS.  327 

want  a  machine  to  do  the  work  of  six  horses,  they 
give  it  nine-horse  power,  so  that  they  may  have  a 
reserve  of  three.  To  carry  on  the  business  of  life, 
you  must  have  surplus  power.  Be  fit  for  more 
than  the  thing  you  are  now  doing.  Let  every  one 
know  that  you  have  a  reserve  in  yourself, — 
that  you  have  more  power  than  you  are  now  using. 
If  you  are  not  too  large  for  the  place  you  occupy, 
you  are  too  small  for  it.  How  full  our  country  is 
of  bright  examples,  not  only  of  those  who  occupy 
some  proud  eminence  in  public  life,  but  in  every 
place  you  may  find  men  going  on  with  steady 
nerve,  attracting  the  attention  of  their  fellow- 
citizens,  and  carving  out  for  themselves  names 
and  fortunes  from  small  and  humble  beginnings 
and  in  the  face  of  formidable  obstacles.  Let  me 
cite  an  example  of  a  man  I  recently  saw  in  the 
little  village  of  Norwich,  New  York.  If  you  wish 
to  know  his  name,  go  into  any  hardware-store,  and 
ask  for  the  best  hammer  in  the  world;  and,  if  the 
salesman  be  an  intelligent  man,  he  will  bring  you  a 
hammer  bearing  the  name  of  D.  Maydole.  Young 
gentlemen,  take  that  hammer  in  your  hand,  drive 
nails  with  it,  and  draw  inspiration  from  it. 

Thirty  years  ago  a  boy  was  struggling  through 
the  snows  of  Chenango  Valley,  trying  to  hire  him- 


328      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

self  to  a  blacksmith.  He  succeeded,  and  learned 
his  trade ;  but  he  did  more.  He  took  it  into  his 
head  that  he  could  make  a  better  hammer  than 
any  other  man  had  made.  He  devoted  himself  to 
the  task  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century.  He 
studied  the  chemistry  of  metals,  the  strength  of 
materials,  the  philosophy  of  form.  He  studied 
failures.  Each  broken  hammer  taught  him  a  les- 
son. There  was  no  part  of  the  process  that  he 
did  not  master.  He  taxed  his  wit  to  invent  ma- 
chines to  perfect  and  cheapen  his  processes.  No 
improvement  in  working  steel  or  iron  escaped  his 
notice.  What  may  not  twenty-five  years  of  effort 
accomplish  when  concentrated  on  a  single  object  ? 
He  earned  success;  and  now,  when  his  name  is 
stamped  on  a  steel  hammer,  it  is  his  note,  his  bond, 
his  integrity  embodied  in  steel.  The  spirit  of  the 
man  is  in  each  hammer;  and  the  work,  like  the 
workman,  is  unrivalled.  Mr.  Maydole  is  now 
acknowledged  to  have  made  the  best  hammer  in 
the  world.  Even  the  sons  of  Thor,  across  the  sea, 
admit  it. 

While  I  was  there,  looking  through  his  shop, 
with  all  its  admirable  arrangement  of  tools  and 
machinery,  there  came  to  him  a  large  order  from 
China.  The  merchants  of  the  Celestial  Kingdom 


ELEMENTS  OF   SUCCESS.  329 

had  sent  down  to  the  little  town,  where  the  per- 
sistent blacksmith  now  lives  in  affluence,  to  get 
the  best  that  Anglo-Saxon  skill  had  accomplished 
in  the  hammer  business.  It  is  no  small  achieve- 
ment to  do  one  thing  better  than  any  other  man 
in  the  world  has  done  it. 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  something  nearer 
your  own  work  in  this  college.  About  forty  years 
ago  a  young  lad  who  had  come  from  the  Catskill 
Mountains,  where  he  had  learned  the  rudiments  of 
penmanship  by  scribbling  on  the  sole-leather  of  a 
good  old  Quaker  shoemaker  (for  he  was  too  poor 
to  buy  paper)  till  he  could  write  better  than  his 
neighbors,  commenced  to  teach  in  that  part  of 
Ohio  which  has  been  called  "benighted  Ashta- 
bula "  (I  suggest  "  beknighted "  as  the  proper 
spelling  of  the  word).  He  set  up  a  little  writing- 
school  in  a  rude  log  cabin,  and  threw  into  the 
work  the  fervor  of  a  poetic  soul  and  a  strength  of 
heart  and  spirit  that  few  men  possess.  He  caught 
his  ideals  of  beauty  from  the  waves  of  the  lake 
and  the  curves  they  make  upon  the  white  sand 
beach,  and  from  the  tracery  of  the  spider's  web. 
Studying  the  lines  of  beauty  as  drawn  by  the 
hand  of  Nature,  he  wrought  out  that  system  of 
penmanship  which  is  now  the  pride  of  our  cou'n- 


330      PBESIDENT   GABriBLD   AND  EDUCATION. 

try,  and  the  model  of  our  schools.  It  is  the  sys- 
tem you  have  been  learning  in  this  college,  and 
which  is  so  worthily  represented  by  the  son  of  its 
author,  my  friend  Professor  Spencer,  your  able 
instructor.  This  is  an  example  of  what  a  man 
may  do  by  putting  his  whole  heart  into  the  work 
he  undertakes. 

Only  yesterday,  on  my  way  here,  I  learned  a 
fact  which  I  will  give  you  to  show  how,  by  attend- 
ing to  things,  and  putting  your  mind  to  the  work, 
you  may  reach  success.  A  few  days  ago,  in  the 
city  of  Boston,  there  was  held 'an  exhibition  of 
photography;  and  to  the  great  surprise  of  New 
England  it  turned  out  that  Mr.  Ryder,  a  pho- 
tographer from  Cleveland,  O.,  took  the  prize  for 
the  best  photography  in  America.  But  how  did 
this  thing  happen  ?  I  will  tell  you.  This  Cleve- 
land photographer  happened  to  read  in  a  German 
paper  of  a  process  practised  by  the  artists  of 
Bohemia,  —  a  process  of  touching  up  the  negative 
with  the  finest  instruments,  thus  removing  all 
chemical  imperfections  from  the  negative  itself. 
Reading  this,  he  sent  for  one  of  these  artists,  and 
at  length  succeeded  in  bringing  the  art  of  Bohe- 
mia into  the  service  of  his  own  profession. 

The  patient  Bohemian  sat  down  with  his  lenses, 


ELEMENTS   OF   SUCCESS.  331 

and  bringing  a  strong,  clear  light  upon  these  neg- " 
atives,  working  with  the  finest  instruments,  round- 
ing and  strengthening  the  outlines,  was  able  at 
last  to  print  from  the  negative  a  photograph  more 
perfect  than  any  I  have  seen  made  with  the  help 
of  an  India-ink  finish.  And  so  Mr.  Ryder  took 
the  prize.  Why  not  ?  It  was  no  mystery  :  it  was 
simply  taking  time  by  the  forelock,  securing  the 
best  aid  in  his  business,  and  bringing  to  bear  the 
force  of  an  energetic  mind  to  attain  the  best  pos- 
sible results.  That  is  the  only  way,  young  ladies  / 
and  gentlemen,  in  which  success  is  gained.  These 
men  succeed  because  they  deserve  success.  Their 
results  are  wrought  out:  they  do  not  come  to 
hand  already  made.  Poets  may  be  born,  but 
success  is  made. 

Young  gentlemen,  let  not  poverty  stand  as  an 
obstacle  in  your  way.  Poverty  is  uncomfortable, 
as  I.  can  testify ;  but  nine  times  out  of  ten  the 
best  thing  that  can  happen  to  a  young  man  is  to 
be  tossed  overboard,  and  compelled  to  sink  or 
swim  for  himself.  In  all  my  acquaintance,  I  have 
never  known  one  to  be  drowned  who  was  worth 
the  saving.  This  would  not  be  wholly  true  in  any 
country  but  one  of  political  equality  like  ours. 
The  editor  of  one  of  the  leading  magazines  of 


332      PRESIDENT  GAEFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

England  told  me,  not  many  months  ago,  a  fact 
startling  enough  in  itself,  but  of  great  significance 
to  a  poor  man.  He  told  me  that  he  had  never  yet 
known,  in  all  his  experience,  a  single  boy  of  the 
class  of  farm-laborers  (not  those  who  own  farms, 
but  mere  farm-laborers)  who  had  ever  risen  above 
his  class.  Boys  from  the  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial classes  had  risen  frequently,  but  from  the 
farm-labor  class  he  had  never  known  one. 

The  reason  is  this :  In  the  aristocracies  of  the 
Old  World,  wealth  and  society  are  built  up  like 
the  strata  of  rock  which  compose  the  crust  of  the 
earth.  If  a  boy  be  born  in  the  lowest  stratum  of 
life,  it  is  almost  impossible  for  him  to  rise  through 
this  hard  crust  into  the  higher  ranks ;  but  in  this 
country  it  is  not  so.  The  strata  of  our  society 
resemble  rather  the  ocean,  where  every  drop,  even 
the  lowest,  is  free  to  mingle  with  all  others,  and 
may  shine  at  last  on  the  crest  of  the  highest  wave. 
This  is  the  glory  of  our  country,  young  gentle- 
men; and  you  need  not  fear  that  there  are  any 
obstacles  which  will  prove  too  great  for  any  brave 
heart.  You  will  recollect  what  Burns,  who  knew 
all  meanings  of  poverty  and  struggle,  has  said  in 
homely  verse :  — 


ELEMENTS  OF   SUCCESS.  333 

"  Though  losses  and  crosses 
Be  lessons  right  severe, 
There's  wit  there,  you'll  get  there, 
You'll  find  no  other  where." 

One  thought  more,  and  I  will  close.  This  is 
almost  a  sermon,  but  I  cannot  help  it;  for  the 
occasion  itself  has  given  rise  to  the  thoughts  I  am 
offering  you.  Let  me  suggest,  that,  in  giving  you 
being,  God  locked  up  in  your  nature  certain  forces 
and  capabilities.  What  will  you  do  with  them  ? 
Look  at  the  mechanism  of  a  clock.  Take  off  the 
pendulum  and  ratchet,  and  the  wheels  go  rattling 
down,  and  all  its  force  is  expended  in  a  moment ; 
but  properly  balanced  and  regulated  it  will  go  on, 
letting  out  its  force  tick  by  tick,  measuring  hours 
and  days,  and  doing  faithfully  the  service  for 
which  it  was  designed.  I  implore  you  to  cherish 
and  guard  and  use  well  the  forces  that  God  has 
given  to  you.  You  may  let  them  run  down  in  a 
year,  if  you  will.  Take  off  the  strong  curb  of 
discipline  and  morality,  and  you  will  be  an  old 
man  before  your  twenties  are  passed.  Preserve 
these  forces.  Do  not  burn  them  out  with  brandy, 
or  waste  them  in  idleness  and  crime.  Do  not 
destroy  them.  Do  not  use  them  unworthily.  Save 
and  protect  them,  that  they  may  save  for  you 


334      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND   EDUCATION. 

fortune  and  fame.  Honestly  resolve  to  do  this, 
and  you  will  be  an  honor  to  yourself  and  to  your 
country.  I  thank  you,  young  friends,  for  your 
kind  attention. 


IX. 

&amt  STenfcencfes  of  American  Education. 

SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  DEPARTMENT   OF   SUPERINTENDENCE 

OF  THE  NATIONAL  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION, 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  FEB.  6,  1879. 


EX. 

SOME  TENDENCIES  OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION. 


ENTLEMEN,  I  am  really  not  in  a  situation 
**•*  to  say  any  thing  to  this  convention,  for  I  do 
not  know  where  you  are  in  the  course  of  your 
deliberations  ;  but  Dr.  Loring  has  said  some  things 
that  have  awakened  in  me  a  very  lively  interest, 
and  I  will  "  rake  after  his  cradling,"  as  the  har- 
vesters would  say.  It  is  a  matter  of  great  gratifi- 
cation to  me  to  meet  gentlemen  who  are  engaged 
in  the  work  of  education.  I  feel  at  home  among 
teachers  ;  and,  I  may  say,  I  look  back  with  more 
satisfaction  upon  my  work  as  a  teacher  than  upon 
any  other  work  I  have  done.  It  gives  me  a  pleas- 
ant home  feeling  to  sit  among  you,  and  revive  old 
memories. 

There  is  one  thing  to  which  I  will  venture  to 
call  your  attention  ;  and  that  is  the  great  case,  if  I 
may  speak  as  a  lawyer,  which  is  soon  to  be  tried 
before  the  American  people,  —  the  case  of  Brains 
vs.  Brick  and  Mortar.  That,  in  my  judgment,  is  to 

337 


338      PRESIDENT   GAR  FIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

be  a  notable  trial;  and  until  the  cause  is  fully 
argued  and  rightly  decided,  we  shall  have  no  end 
of  trouble  in  our  educational  work.  To  insure  its 
final  and  rightful  settlement,  the  friends  of  our 
schools  should  unite  to  force  the  question  to  a 
hearing,  and  should  go  to  the  very  bottom  of  the 
controversy.  It  has  long  been  my  opinion,  that 
we  are  all  educated,  whether  children,  men,  or 
women,  far  more  by  personal  influence  than  by 
books  and  the  apparatus  of  schools.  If  I  could 
be  taken  back  into  boyhood  to-day,  and  had  all 
the  libraries  and  apparatus  of  a  university,  with 
ordinary  routine  professors,  offered  me  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  a  great,  luminous,  rich- 
souled  man,  such  as  Dr.  Hopkins  was  twenty 
years  ago,  in  a  tent  in  the  woods  alone,  I  should 
say,  "  Give  me  Dr.  Hopkins  for  my  college  course, 
rather  than  any  university  with  only  routine  pro- 
fessors." The  privilege  of  sitting  down  before  a 
great  clear-headed,  large-hearted  man,  and  breath- 
ing the  atmosphere  of  his  life,  and  being  drawn 
up  to  him  and  lifted  up  by  him,  and  learning 
his  methods  of  thinking  and  living,  is  in  itself 
an  enormous  educating  power.  But  America,  I 
say,  is  running  to  brick  and  mortar.  Colleges 
and  universities  are  constantly  receiving  munifi- 


TENDENCIES   OF   AMERICAN  EDUCATION.      339 

cent  gifts  which  the  donors  require  to  be  built 
into  walls  inscribed  with  their  names ;  but  the  real 
college  sits  starving  under  the  stately  shadows. 
Our  Smithsonian  Institution  over  here  was,  for  a 
long  time,  engaged  in  this  struggle  between  brick 
and  brains.  One  of  the  first  things  done  by  Con- 
gress was  to  saddle  it  with  a  huge  brick  building. 
Another  impediment  we  fortunately  got  rid  of,  — 
the  great  library  of  the  Institution,  which  de- 
voured five  thousand  dollars  a  year  of  the  income  ; 
and  we  are  now  struggling  to  get  off  our  hands 
the  great  museum,  which  costs  still  more.  Mu- 
seums and  libraries  are  necessary  and  valuable ; 
but  the  central  purpose  of  Smithson,  to  encourage 
original  discovery,  was  in  great  measure  thwarted 
by  the  mere  accumulation  of  materials.  I  hope 
the  day  is  not  distant  when  the  income  of  that 
beneficent  institution  will  be  so  liberated  that 
every  American  who  has  the  requisite  genius  and 
force  can  find  there  the  help  required  for  original 
investigation. 

And  so,  in  our  schools,  let  us  put  less  money  in 
great  schoolhouses,  and  more  in  the  salaries  of 
teachers.  Smaller  schools  and  more  teachers,  less 
machinery  and  more  personal  influence,  will  bring 
forth  fruits  higher  and  better  than  any  we  have 
vet  seen. 


340      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

In  this  connection  I  will  refer  to  the  tendency 
in  our  primary, schools  to  overcrowd  the  children 
by  giving  them  too  many  studies,  and  thus  render- 
ing them  superficial  in  all.  The  professors  at 
West  Point  tell  us  that  for  more  than  forty  years 
their  course  of  examinations  of  cadets  for  admis- 
sion has  been  substantially  the  same,  and  that  the 
questions  now  asked  in  the  several  branches  are 
the  same  as  those  propounded  in  the  same 
branches  forty  years  ago.  Now,  these  professors 
say  that  the  percentage  of  failures  to  pass  that 
preliminary  examination  has  been  increasing,  es- 
pecially of  late,  with  alarming  rapidity,  and  is  very 
much  greater  than  it  was  forty  years  ago.  I  un- 
derstand that  Professor  Church  says  this  fact  does 
not  arise  from  worse  appointments,  nor  from  lack 
of  general  information.  Indeed,  the  young  men 
who  go  there  now  have  much  more  general  cul- 
ture than  their  earlier  predecessors.  Many  of 
them,  who  have  studied  Latin,  algebra,  and  phys- 
ics, and  other  higher  branches,  utterly  break 
down  in  spelling,  penmanship,  arithmetic,  and 
grammar.  In  short,  they  know  a  little  of  many 
branches,  but  are  thorough  in  none. 

There  is  a  limit  of  effort  in  a  child ;  and  if  his 
culture  is  spread  over  too  large  a  surface,  it  will 


TENDENCIES   OF   AMEKICAN  EDUCATION.      341 

be  thin  everywhere.  The  ambition  of  our  schools 
to  do  too  much  results  in  doing  nothing  well. 
Non  multa  sed  multum  is  the  old  and  safe  rule.  I 
believe,  therefore,  that  the  two  great  points  which 
the  educators  of  this  country  should  aim  at  if 
they  would  succeed  are,  first,  smaller  schools  and 
more  teachers,  —  remembering  always  that  a 
teacher  who  is  at  all  fit  for  his  work  is  one  who 
has  the  power  of  inspiring,  who  can  pour  his  spirit 
into  the  darkness  of  the  pupil's  mind,  and  fill 
it  with  "  sweetness  and  light ;  "  secondly,  they 
should  cut  off  a  large  number  of  new  studies 
which  have  been  forced  into  the  earlier  course, 
and  concentrate  their  efforts  upon  the  old  primary 
branches  until  these  are  thoroughly  mastered. 

Now,  gentlemen,  you  who  are  conducting  the 
educational  affairs  of  this  country  cannot  afford 
to  rest  under  this  charge  of  failure  at  West  Point. 
You  must  answer  by  disproving  the  charge,  or 
removing  the  evil.  Every  conference  among 
educators  should  be  directed  to  these  questions ; 
and  when  they  are  settled,  you  will  have  rendered 
one  of  the  highest  services  that  can  be  rendered 
to  this  country. 

If  I  may  refer  to  the  national  aspect  of  your 
profession,  I  will  say  we  can  never  escape  Mac- 


342      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

aulay's  prophecy  of  the  downfall  of  the  Republic, 
unless  we  do  it  by  the  aid  of  the  schoolmaster. 
Macaulay  said  that  a  government  like  ours  must 
inevitably  lead  to  anarchy ;  and  I  believe  there  is 
no  answer  to  his  prophecy  unless  the  schoolmaster 
can  give  it.  If  we  can  fill  the  minds  of  all  our 
children  who  are  to  be  voters  with  intelligence 
which  will  fit  them  wisely  to  vote,  and  fill  them 
with  the  spirit  of  liberty,  then  will  we  have 
averted  the  fatal  prophecy.  But  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  allow  our  youth  to  grow  up  in  ignorance, 
this  Republic  will  end  in  disastrous  failure.  All 
the  encouragement  that  the  National  Government 
can  give,  every  thing  that  States  can  do,  all  that 
good  citizens  every  where  can  do,  and  most  of  all 
what  the  teacher  himself  can  do,  ought  to  be 
hailed  as  the  deliverance  of  our  country  from  the 
saddest  distress. 


X. 

IN     MEMORIAM. 

S.  JF.  53.  fSorse. 

AN  ADDRESS  AT  THE  MORSE  MEMORIAL  MEETING,  HELD 

IN  THE  HALL  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

APRIL  16,  1872. 


X. 

S.  F.  B.  MORSE. 

grave  has  just  closed  over  the  mortal 
remains  of  one  whose  name  will  be  forever 
associated  with  a  series  of  achievements  in  the 
domain  of  discovery  and  invention  the  most  won- 
derful our  race  has  ever  known,  —  wonderful  in 
the  results  accomplished,  more  wonderful  still 
in  the  agencies  employed,  most  wonderful  in  the 
scientific  revelations  which  preceded  and  accom- 
panied its  development. 

The  electro-magnetic  telegraph  is  the  embodi- 
ment—  I  might  say  the  incarnation  —  of  many 
centuries  of  thought,  of  many  generations  of 
effort  to  elicit  from  Nature  one  of  her  deepest 
mysteries. 

No  one  man,  no  one  century,  could  have 
achieved  it.  It  is  the  child  of  the  human  race,  — 
"  the  heir  of  all  the  ages."  How  wonderful  were 
the  steps  which  led  to  its  creation!  The  very 
name  of  this  telegraphic  instrument  bears  record 

345 


346      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND  J}DUCATION. 

of  its  history,  —  "  electric,  magnetic !  "  The  first 
named  from  the  bit  of  yellow  amber,  whose  quali- 
ties of  attraction  and  repulsion  were  discovered 
by  a  Grecian  philosopher  twenty-four  centuries 
ago ;  and  the  second  from  Magnesia,  the  village 
of  Asia  Minor,  where  first  was  found  the  load- 
stone whose  touch  turned  the  needle  forever  to 
the  north.  These  were  the  earliest  forms  in 
which  that  subtle,  all-pervading  force  revealed 
itself  to  men.  In  the  childhood  of  the  race,  men 
stood  dumb  in  the  presence  of  its  more  terrible 
manifestations.  When  it  gleamed  in  the  purple 
aurora,  or  shot  dusky-red  from  the  clouds,  it  was 
the  eye-flash  of  an  angry  God,  before  whom  mor- 
tals quailed  in  helpless  fear. 

When  the  electric  light  burned  blue  on  the 
spear-points  of  the  Roman  legions,  it  was  to  them 
and  their  leaders  a  portent  from  the  gods,  beckon- 
ing to  victory.  When  the  phosphorescent  light, 
which  the  sailors  still  call  St.  Elmo's  fire,  hovered 
on  the  masts  and  spars  of  the  Roman  ship,  it  was 
Castor  and  Pollux,  twin  gods  of  the  sea,  guiding 
the  mariner  to  port,  or  the  beacon  of  an  avenging 
god  luring  him  to  death. 

When  we  consider  the  startling  forms  in  which 
this  element  presents  itself,  it  is  not  surprising 


S.   P.   B.   MOESB.  347 

that  so  many  centuries  elapsed  before  man  dared 
to  confront  and  question  its  awful  mystery.  And 
it  was  fitting  that  here,  in  this  new,  free  world, 
the  first  answer  came,  revealing  to  our  Franklin 
the  great  truth,  that  the  lightning  of  the  sky, 
and  the  electricity  of  the  laboratory,  were  one ; 
that  in  the  simple  electric  toy  were  embodied  all 
the  mysteries  of  the  thunderbolt.  Until  near  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  the  only  known 
method  of  producing  electricity  was  by  friction. 
But  the  discoveries  of  Galvani  in  1790,  and  of 
Volta  in  1810,  resulted  in  the  production  of  elec- 
tricity by  the  chemical  action  of  acids  upon  metals, 
and  gave  to  the  world  the  galvanic  battery  and 
the  voltaic  pile  and  the  electric  current.  This 
was  the  first  step  in  that  path  of  modern  discov- 
ery which  led  to  the  telegraph.  But  further 
discoveries  were  necessary  to  make  the  telegraph 
possible. 

The  next  great  step  was  taken  by  Oersted,  the 
Swedish  professor,  who,  in  1819-20,  made  the  dis- 
covery that  the  needle,  when  placed  near  the  gal- 
vanic battery,  was  deflected  at  right  angles  with 
the  electric  current.  In  the  four  modest  pages 
in  which  Oersted  announced  this  discovery  to 
the  world,  the  science  of  electro-magnetism  was 
founded. 


348      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

As  Franklin  had  exhibited  the  relation  between 
lightning  and  the  electric  fluid,  so  Oersted  exhib- 
ited the  relation  between  magnetism  and  elec- 
tricity. From  1820  to  1825  his  discovery  was 
further  developed  by  Davy  and  Sturgeon  of  Eng- 
land, and  Arago  and  Ampere  of  France.  They 
found,  that,  by  sending  a  current  of  electricity 
through  a  wire  coiled  .around  a  piece  of  soft  iron, 
the  iron  became  a  magnet  while  the  current  was 
passing,  and  ceased  to  be  a  magnet  when  the 
current  was  broken.  This  gave  an  intermittent 
power,  —  a  power  to  grapple  and  to  let  go,  at  the 
will  of  the  electrician.  Ampe"re  suggested  that  a 
telegraph  was  possible  by  applying  this  power  to 
a  needle. 

In  1825  Barlow  of  England  made  experiments 
to  verify  this  suggestion  of  the  telegraph,  and 
pronounced  it  impracticable  on  the  ground  that 
the  batteries  then  used  would  not  send  the  fluid 
through  even  two  hundred  feet  of  wire  without  a 
sensible  diminution  of  its  force. 

In  1831  Joseph  Henry,  now  secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  then  a  professor  at  Alba- 
ny, N.Y.,  as  the  result  of  numerous  experiments 
discovered  a  method  by  which  he  produced  a  bat- 
tery of  such  intensity  as  to  overcome  the 
cultv  spoken  of  by  Barlow  in  1825, 


S.   P.   B.   MORSE.  349 

By  means  of  this  his  discovery,  he  magnetized 
soft  iron  at  a  great  distance  from  the  battery, 
pointed  out  the  fact  that  a  telegraph  was  possible, 
and  actually  rang  a  bell  by  means  of  the  electro- 
magnet acting  on  a  long  wire. 

This  was  the  last  step  in  the  series  of  great 
discoveries  which  preceded  the  invention  of  the 
telegraph. 

When  these  discoveries  ended,  the  work  of  the 
inventor  began.  It  was  in  1832,  the  year  that 
succeeded  the  last  of  these  great  discoveries, 
when  Professor  Morse  first  turned  his  thoughts 
to  that  work  whose  triumph  is  the  triumph  of  his 
race.  He  had  devoted  twenty-two  years  of  his 
manhood  to  the  study  and  practice  of  art.  He 
had  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  great  masters  of  Europe, 
and  had  already,  by  his  own  works  of  art,  achieved 
a  noble  name  from  the  work  of  interpreting ;  and 
he  now  turned  to  the  grander  work  of  interpret- 
ing to  the  world  that  subtle  and  mysterious  ele- 
ment with  which  the  thinkers  of  the  human  race 
had  so  long  been  occupied. 

I  cannot  here  recount  the  story  of  that  long 
struggle  through  which  he  passed  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  great  result;  how  he  struggled 
with  poverty,  with  the  vast  difficulties  of  the  sub- 


350      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

ject  itself,  with  the  unfaith,  the  indifference,  and 
the  contempt  which  almost  everywhere  con- 
fronted him ;  how,  at  the  very  moment  of  his  tri- 
umph, he  was  on  the  verge  of  despair,  when  in 
this  very  Capitol  his  project  met  the  jeers  of 
almost  a  majority  of  the  National  Legislature. 
But  when  has  despair  yielded  to  such  a  triumph  ? 
When  has  such  a  morning  risen  on  such  a  night  ? 
To  all  cavillers  and  doubters,  this  instrument  and 
its  language  are  a  triumphant  answer.  That 
chainless  spirit  which  fills  the  immensity  of  space 
with  its  invisible  presence ;  which  dwells  in  the 
blaze  of  the  sun,  and  follows  the  path  of  the  far- 
thest star,  and  courses  the  depths  of  earth  and 
sea,  —  that  mighty  spirit  has  at  last  yielded  to  the 
human  will.  It  has  entered  a  body  prepared  for 
its  dwelling.  It  has  found  a  voice  through  which 
it  speaks  to  the  human  ear.  It  has  taken  its 
place  as  the  humble  servant  of  man ;  and  through 
all  coming  time  its  work  will  be  associated  with 
the  name  and  fame  of  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse. 

Were  there  no  other  proof  of  the  present  value 
of  his  work,  this  alone  would  suffice,  —  that 
throughout  the  world,  whatever  the  language  or 
the  dialect  of  those  who  use  it,  the  telegraph 
speaks  a  language  whose  first  element  is  the 


S.   F.  B.   MOKSE.  351 

alphabet  of  Morse ;  and  in  1869,  of  the  sixteen 
thousand  telegraphic  instruments  used  on  the 
lines  of  Europe,  thirteen  thousand  were  of  the 
pattern  invented  by  Morse.  The  future  of  this 
great  achievement  can  be  measured  by  no  known 
standards.  Morse  gave  us  the  instrument  and 
the  alphabet.  The  world  is  only  beginning  to 
spell  out  the  lesson,  whose  meaning  the  future 
will  read. 


XI. 

IN     MEMORIAM. 

Sosepfj 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  MEMORIAL  MEETING  HELD  IN  THE 

HAT.T.  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

TUESDAY  EVENING,  JAN.  16,  1879. 


XI. 

JOSEPH  HENRY. 

"  And  who  hath  trod  Olympus,  from  his  eye 
Fades  not  the  broader  outlook  of  the  gods." 

1V/TR.  PRESIDENT,— In  the  presence  of  these 
fathers  of  science,  who  have  honored  this 
occasion  with  their  wisdom  and  eloquence,  I  can 
do  but  little  more  than  express  my  gratitude  for 
the  noble  contribution  they  have  made  to  this 
national  expression  of  love  and  reverence.  So 
completely  have  they  covered  the  ground,  so  fully 
have  they  sketched  the  great  life  which  we  cele- 
brate, that  nothing  is  left  but  to  linger  a  moment 
over  the  tributes  they  have  offered,  and  select 
here  and  there  a  special  excellence  to  carry  away 
as  a  lasting  memorial. 

No  page  of  human  history  is  so  instructive  and 
significant  as  the  record  of  those  early  influences 
which  develop  the  character  and  direct  the  lives 
of  eminent  men.  To  every  man  of  great  original 
power,  there  comes  in  early  youth  a  moment  of 

355 


356      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

sudden  discovery,  of  self-recognition,  when  his 
own  nature  is  revealed  to  himself,  when  he  catches, 
for  the  first  time,  a  strain  of  that  immortal  song 
to  which  his  own  spirit  answers,  and  which  be- 
comes thenceforth  and  forever  the  inspiration  of 
his  life,  — 

"  Like  noble  music  unto  noble  words." 

More  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  in  Strasbourg 
on  the  Rhine,  in  obedience  to  the  commands  of 
his  father,  a  German  lad  was  reluctantly  studying 
the  mysteries  of  the  civil  law,  but  feeding  his 
spirit  as  best  he  could  upon  the  formal  and  artifi- 
cial poetry  of  his  native  land,  when  a*  page  of  Wil- 
liam Shakespeare  met  his  eye,  and  changed  the 
whole  current  of  his  life.  Abandoning  the  law, 
he  created  and  crowned  with  an  immortal  name 
the  grandest  epoch  of  German  literature. 

Recording  his  own  experience,  he  says,  — 

"  At  the  first  touch  of  Shakespeare's  genius  I  made  the 
glad  confession  that  something  inspiring  hovered  above  me. 
.  .  .  The  first  page  of  his  that  I  read  made  me  his  for  life  ; 
and  when  I  had  finished  a  single  play,  I  stood  like  one  born 
blind  on  whom  a  miraculous  hand  bestows  sight  in  a  mo- 
ment. I  saw,  I  felt,  in  the  most  vivid  manner,  that  my 
existence  was  infinitely  expanded." 


JOSEPH  HENRY.  357 

This  old-world  experience  of  Goethe's  was  strik- 
ingly reproduced,  though  under  different  condi- 
tions, and  with  different  results,  in  the  early  life  of 
Joseph  Henry.  You  have  just  heard  the  incident 
worthily  recounted;  but  let  us  linger  over  it  a 
moment.  An  orphan  boy  of  sixteen,  of  tough 
Scotch  fibre,  laboring  for  his  own  support  at  the 
handicraft  of  the  jeweller,  unconscious  of  his  great 
power,  delighted  with  romance  and  the  drama, 
dreaming  of  a  possible  career  on  the  stage,  his 
attention  was  suddenly  arrested  by  a  single  page 
of  an  humble  book  of  science  which  chanced  to 
fall  into  his  hands.  It  was  not  the  flash  of  poetic 
vision  which  aroused  him :  it  was  the  voice  of 
great  Nature  calling  her  child.  With  quick  rec- 
ognition and  glad  reverence  his  spirit  responded ; 
and  from  that  moment  to  the  end  of  his  long  and 
honored  life,  Joseph  Henry  was  the  devoted  stu- 
dent of  science,  the  faithful  interpreter  of  nature. 

To  those  who  knew  his  gentle  spirit,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  ever  afterward  he  kept  the  little 
volume  near  him,  and  cherished  it  as  the  source  of 
his  first  inspiration.  In  the  maturity  of  his  fame, 
he  recorded  on  its  fly-leaf  his  gratitude.  Note  his 
words :  — 


358      PBESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

"  This  book  under  Providence  has  exerted  a  remarkable 
influence  on  my  life.  ...  It  opened  to  me  a  new  world  of 
thought  and  enjoyment,  invested  things  before  almost  un- 
noticed with  the  highest  interest,  fixed  my  mind  on  the 
study  of  nature,  and  caused  me  to  resolve  at  the  time  of 
reading  it  that  I  would  devote  my  life  to  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge." 

We  have  heard  from  his  venerable  associates 
with  what  resolute  perseverance  he  trained  his 
mind  and  marshalled  his  powers  for  the  higher 
realms  of  science.  He  was  the  first  American 
after  Franklin  who  made  a  series  of  successful 
original  experiments  in  electricity  and  magnetism. 
He  entered  the  mighty  line  of  Volta,  Galvani, 
Oersted,  Davy,  and  Ampere,  the  great  exploring 
philosophers  of  the  world,  and  added  to  their 
work  a  final  great  discovery  which  made  the 
electro-magnetic  telegraph  possible. 

It  remained  only  for  the  inventor  to  construct 
an  instrument  and  an  alphabet.  Professor  Henry 
refused  .to  reap  any  pecuniary  rewards  from  his 
great  discovery,  but  gave  freely  to  mankind  what 
nature  and  science  had  given  to  him. 

I  observe  that  these  venerable  gentlemen  who 
have  spoken  express  some  regret  that  Professor 
Henry  left  their  higher  circle  to  come  down  to  us ; 


JOSEPH  HENBY.  359 

and  to  some  extent  I  share  their  regret.  Doubt- 
less it  was  a  great  loss  to  science.  I  remember 
that  Agassiz  once  said  he  had  made  it  the  rule 
of  his  life  to  abandon  any  scientific  investigation 
so  soon  as  it  became  useful.  I  fancied  I  saw  him 
and  his  brethren  going  beyond  the  region  of  per- 
petual frost,  up  among  the  wild  elements  of  nature 
and  the  hidden  mysteries  of  science,  and  when 
they  had  made  a  discovery,  and  brought  it  down 
to  the  line  of  commercial  value,  leaving  it  there, 
knowing  that  the  world  would  make  it  useful  and 
profitable,  while  they  went  back  to  resume  their 
original  search.  I  do  not  wonder  that  these  men 
regretted  the  loss  of  such  a  comrade  as  Joseph 
Henry. 

But  something  is  due  to  the  millions  of  Ameri- 
cans outside  the  circle  of  science  ;  and  the  Repub- 
lic has  the  right  to  call  on  all  her  children  for 
service.  It  was  needful  that  the  government  should 
have,  here  at  its  capital,  a  great,  luminous-minded, 
pure-hearted  man,  to  serve  as  its  counsellor  and 
friend  in  matters  of  science.  Such  an  adviser  was 
never  more  needed  than  at  the  date  of  Professor 
Henry's  arrival  at  the  capital. 

The  venerable  gentleman  of  almost  eighty 
years,  who  has  just  addressed  us  so  eloquently, 


360      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

has  portrayed  the  difficulties  which  beset  the  gov- 
ernment in  its  attempt  to  determine  how  it  should 
wisely  and  worthily  execute  the  trust  of  Smithson. 
It  was  a  perilous  moment  for  the  credit  of  America 
when  that  bequest  was  made.  In  his  large  catho- 
licity of  mind,  Smithson  did  not  trammel  the  be- 
quest with  conditions.  In  nine  words  he  set  forth 
its  object:  "For  the  increase  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge  among  men."  He  asked  and  believed 
that  America  would  interpret  his  wish  aright,  and 
with  the  liberal  wisdom  of  science. 

A  town-meeting  is  not  a  good  place  to  deter- 
mine scientific  truths.  And  the  yeas  and  nays 
that  are  called  from  this  desk  from  day  to  day  are 
not  the  supreme  test  of  science,  as  the  country 
finds  when  we  attempt  to  settle  any  scientific 
question,  whether  it  relates  to  the  polariscope  or 
to  finance. 

For  ten  years  Congress  wrestled  with  those  nine 
words  of  Smithson,  and  could  not  handle  them. 
Some  political  philosophers  of  that  period  held 
that  we  had  no  constitutional  authority  to  accept 
the  gift  at  all,  and  proposed  to  send  it  back  to 
England.  Every  conceivable  proposition  was 
made.  The  colleges  clutched  at  it ;  the  libraries 
wanted  it;  the  publication  societies  desired  to 


JOSEPH   HENRY.  361 

scatter  it.  The  fortunate  settlement  of  the  ques- 
tion was  this :  that,  after  ten  years  of  wrangling, 
Congress  was  wise  enough  to  acknowledge  its  own 
ignorance,  and  authorized  a  body  of  men  to  find 
some  one  who  knew  how  to  settle  it.  And  these 
men  were  wise  enough  to  choose  your  great  com- 
rade to  undertake  the  task.  Sacrificing  his  bril- 
liant prospects  as  a  discoverer,  he  undertook  the 
difficult  work.  He  draughted  a  paper,  in  which  he 
offered  an  interpretation  of  the  will  of  Smithson, 
mapped  out  a  plan  which  would  meet  the  de- 
mands of  science,  and  submitted  it  to  the  suffrage 
of  the  republic  of  scientific  scholars.  After  due 
deliberation  it  received  the  almost  unanimous 
approval  of  the  scientific  world.  With  faith  and 
sturdy  perseverance,  he  adhered  to  the  plan,  and 
steadily  resisted  all  attempts  to  overthrow  it. 

In  the  thirty-two  years  during  which  he  admin- 
istered the  great  trust,  he  never  swerved  from  his 
first  purpose ;  and  he  succeeded  at  last  in  realizing 
the  ideas  with  which  he  started.  But  it  has  taken 
all  that  time  to  get  rid  of  the  incumbrance  with 
which  Congress  had  overloaded  the  Institution. 
In  this  work  Professor  Henry  taught  the  valuable 
lesson  to  all  founders  and  supporters  of  colleges, 
that  they  should  pay  less  for  brick  and  mortar, 


362      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

and  more  for  brains.  Under  the  first  orders  im- 
posed upon  him  by  Congress,  he  was  required  to 
expend  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  a  year  in  pur- 
chasing books.  By  wise  resistance  he  managed  to 
lengthen  out  the  period  for  that  expenditure  ten 
years ;  and  a  few  years  ago  he  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  Congress  remove  from  the  Institution 
the  heavy  load,  by  transferring  the  Smithsonian  Li- 
brary to  the  Library  of  Congress.  The  fifty-eight 
thousand  volumes  and  forty  thousand  pamphlets, 
of  rare  scientific  value,  which  are  now  upon  our 
shelves,  have  added  greatly  to  the  value  of  the 
national  library ;  but  their  care  and  preservation 
would  soon  have  absorbed  the  resources  of  the 
Smithsonian.  When  Congress  shall  have  taken 
the  other  incumbrance,  the  National  Museum,  off 
the  hands  of  the  Institution,  by  making  fit  pro- 
vision for  the  care  of  the  great  collection,  they 
will  have  done  still  more  to  realize  the  ideas  of 
Professor  Henry. 

He  has  stood  by  our  side  in  all  these  years, 
meeting  every  great  question  of  science  with  that 
calm  spirit  which  knew  no  haste  and  no  rest.  At 
the  call  of  his  government  he  discovered  new 
truths,  and  mustered  them  into  its  service.  The 
twelve  hundred  light-houses  that  shine  on  our 


JOSEPH   HENKY.  363 

shores,  the  three  thousand  buoys  along  our  rivers 
and  coasts,  testify  to  his  faithfulness  and  efficiency. 

When  it  became  evident  that  we  could  no  longer 
depend  upon  the  whale-fisheries  to  supply  our  bea- 
con-lights, he  began  to  search  for  a  substitute  for 
sperm-oil;  and  after  a  thousand  patient  experi- 
ments he  made  the  discovery  that  of  all  the  oils  of 
the  world,  when  heated  to  250°  Fahrenheit,  the 
common,  cheap  lard-oil  of  America  became  the 
best  illuminant.  That  discovery  gave  us  at  once 
an  unfailing  supply,  and  for  many  years  saved  the 
treasury  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

He  had  no  such  pride  of  authorship  as  to  cling 
to  his  own  methods  when  a  better  could  be  found. 
He  has  recently  tested  the  qualities  of  petroleum 
as  an  illuminant,  and  recommended  its  use  for  the 
smaller  lights.  In  instances  far  too  numerous  to 
be  recounted,  we  have  long  had  this  man  as  our 
counsellor,  our  guide,  and  our  friend. 

During  all  the  years  of  his  sojourn  among  us, 
there  has  been  one  spot  in  this  city  across  which 
the  shadow  of  partisan  politics  has  never  fallen  ; 
and  that  was  the  ground  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution. We  have  seen  in  this  city,  at  least  one 
great,  high  trust  so  faithfully  discharged  for  a 
third  of  a  century  that  no  breath  of  suspicion  has 


364      PRESIDENT    GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

ever  dimmed  its  record.  The  Board  of  Regents 
have  seen  Professor  Henry's  accounts  all  closed ; 
and,  after  the  most  rigid  examination,  the  unani- 
mous declaration  is  made,  that,  to  the  last  cent, 
during  the  whole  of  that  period,  his  financial  ad- 
ministration was  as  faultless  and  complete  as  his 
discoveries  in  science.  The  blessing  of  such  an 
example  in  this  city  ought  at  least  to  do  something 
to  reconcile  these  men  of  science  to  the  loss  they 
suffered  when  their  friend  was  called  to  serve  the 
government  at  its  capital. 

Remembering  his  great  career  as  a  man  of  sci- 
ence, as  a  man  who  served  his  government  with 
singular  ability  and  faithfulness,  who  was  loved 
and  venerated  by  every  circle,  who  blessed  with 
the  light  of  his  friendship  the  worthiest  and  the 
best,  whose  life  added  new  lustre  to  the  glory  of 
the  human  race,  we  shall  be  most  fortunate  if 
ever  in  the  future  we  see  his  like  again. 


xn. 

IN    MEMORIAM. 

3Litt  ant  Character  of  ainufca  a.-B00tfj. 

AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  AT  HIRAM  COLLEGE,  O., 
JUNE  22,  1876. 


TO   THE    THOUSANDS    OF    NOBLE     MEN    AND    WOMEN    WHOSE    GENEROUS 
AMBITION   WAS   AWAKENED,   WHOSE  EARLY  CULTURE   WAS    GUIDED, 
AND  WHOSE   LIVES   HAVE   BEEN   MADE   NOBLER,   BY  THE   THOR- 
OUGHNESS  OF   HER  INSTRUCTION,   BY  THE   WISDOM   OF 
HER  COUNSEL,  BY  THE   FAITHFULNESS   OF   HER 
FRIENDSHIP,   AND   THE   PURITY  OF   HER 
LIFE,  THIS   TRIBUTE   TO  THE 
MEMORY  OF 

ALMEDA  A.  BOOTH 

18  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED. 


xn. 

ALMEDA  A.  BOOTH. 

"  The  crown  and  head, 
The  stately  flower  of  female  fortitude." 

.  PRESIDENT,  — You  have  called  me  to 
a  duty  at  once  most  sad  and  most  sacred. 
At  every  step  of  my  preparation  for  its  perform- 
ance, I  have  encountered  troops  of  thronging 
memories  that  swept  across  the  field  of  the  last 
twenty-five  years  of  my  life,  and  so  filled  my  heart 
with  the  lights  and  shadows  of  their  joy  and  sorrow 
that  I  have  hardly  been  able  to  marshal  them  into 
order,  or  give  them  coherent  voice.  I  have  lived 
over  again  the  life  of  this  place.  I  have  seen  again 
the  groups  of  young  and  joyous  students  ascend- 
ing these  green  slopes,  dwelling  for  a  time  on  this 
peaceful  height  in  happy  and  workful  companion- 
ship, and  then,  with  firmer  step  and  with  more 
serious  and  thoughtful  faces,  marching  away  to 
their  posts  in  the  battle  of  life. 

And  still  nearer  and  clearer  have  come  back 

367 


368      PKESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

the  memories  of  that  smaller  band  of  friends,  the 
leaders  and  guides  of  those  who  encamped  on  this 
training-ground.  On  my  journey  to  this  assembly 
it  has  seemed  that  they,  too,  were  coming,  and 
that  here  I  should  once  more  meet  and  greet  them. 
And  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  realize  that 
Almeda  Booth  will  not  be  with  us.  After  our 
great  loss,  how  shall  we  gather  up  the  fragments 
of  the  life  we  lived  in  this  place  ?  We  are  mari- 
ners, treading  the  lonely  shore  in  search  of  our 
surviving  comrades,  and  the  fragments  of  our  good 
ship  wrecked  by  the  tempest.  To  her,  indeed, 
it  is  no  wreck.  She  has  landed  in  safety,  and 
ascended  the  immortal  heights  beyond  our  vision. 
What  manner  of  woman  she  was,  by  what  steps 
and  through  what  struggles  her  character  was 
developed,  to  what  ends  her  life  was  directed, 
what  she  accomplished  for  herself  and  for  us,  and 
what  rich  fruitage  may  be  gathered  from  the  trees 
of  her  planting,  I  shall  attempt  to  portray  as  best 
I  can. 

.  We  can  study  no  life  intelligently  except  in  its 
relations  to  causes  and  results.  Character  is  the 
chief  element,  for  it  is  both  a  result  and  a  cause, — 
the  result  of  all  the  elements  and  forces  that  com- 
bined to  form  it,  and  the  chief  cause  of  all  that  is 
accomplished  by  its  possessor. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  369 

Who,  then,  was  Almeda  Ann  Booth  ?  and  what 
were  the  elements  and  forces  that  formed  her 
character  and  guided  her  life  ? 

Every  character  is  the  joint  product  of  nature 
and  nurture.  By  the  first,  we  mean  those  inborn 
qualities  of  body  and  mind  inherited  from  parents, 
or,  rather,  from  a  long  line  of  ancestors.  Who 
shall  estimate  the  effect  of  those  latent  forces  in- 
folded in  the  spirit  of  a  new-born  child,  which 
may  date  back  centuries,  and  find  their  origin  in 
the  unwritten  history  of  remote  ancestors ;  forces, 
the  germs  of  which,  enveloped  in  the  solemn  mys- 
tery of  life,  have  been  transmitted  silently  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  never  perish  ?  All- 
cherishing  nature,  provident  and  unforgetting, 
gathers  up  all  these  fragments,  that  nothing  may 
be  lost,  but  that  all  may  re-appear  in  new  combi- 
nations. Each  new  life  is  thus  the  "heir  of  all 
the  ages,"  the  possessor  of  qualities  which  only 
the  events  of  life  can  unfold. 

By  the  second  element,  —  nurture,  or  culture, 
—  we  designate  all  those  influences  which  act 
upon  this  initial  force  of  character  to  retard  or 
strengthen  its  development.  There  has  been  much 
discussion  to  determine  which  of  these  elements 
plays  the  more  important  part  in  the  formation  of 


370      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

character.  The  truth  doubtless  is,  that  sometimes 
the  one  and  sometimes  the  other  is  the  greater 
force ;  but,  so  far  as  life  and  character  are  depend- 
ent upon  voluntary  action,  the  second  is  no  doubt 
the  element  of  chief  importance. 

Not  enough  attention  has  been  paid  to  the 
marked  difference  between  the  situation  and  possi- 
bilities of  a  life  developed  here  in  the  West  during 
the  first  half  of  the  present  century,  and  those  of 
a  life  nurtured  and  cultivated  in  an  old  and  settled 
community  like  that  of  New  England. 

Consider,  for  example,  the  measureless  differ- 
ence between  the  early  surroundings  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  Both 
were  possessed  of  great  natural  endowments. 
Adams  was  blessed  with  parents  whose  native 
force  of  character  and  whose  vigorous  and  thor- 
ough culture  have  never  been  surpassed  by  any 
married  pair  in  America.  Young  Adams  was 
thoroughly  taught  by  his  mother  until  he  had 
completed  his  tenth  year;  and  then,  accompany- 
ing his  father  to  France,  he  spent  two  years  in  a 
training-school  at  Paris  and  three  years  in  the 
university  at  Leyden.  After  two  years  of  diplo- 
matic service  under  the  skilful  guidance  of  his 
father's  hand,  he  returned  to  America,  and  devoted 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  371 

three  years  to  study  at  Harvard,  where  he  was 
graduated  at  the  age  of  twenty-one ;  and  three 
years  later  was  graduated  in  the  law  under  the 
foremost  jurist  of  his  time.  With  such  parentage 
and  such  opportunities,  who  can  wonder,  that,  by 
the  time  he  reached  the  meridian  of  his  life,  he 
was  a  man  of  immense  erudition,  and  had  honored 
every  great  office  in  the  gift  of  his  country  ? 

How  startling  the  contrast,  in  every  particular, 
between  his  early  life  and  that  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln !  The  facts  concerning  the  latter  are  too  well 
known  to  require  a  statement.  Born  to  an  inher- 
itance of  the  extremest  poverty,  wholly  unaided 
by  his  parents,  surrounded  by  the  rude  forces  of 
the  wilderness,  only  one  year  in  any  school,  never 
for  a  day  master  of  his  own  time  until  he  reached 
his  majority,  forcing  his  way  to  the  profession  of 
the  law  by  the  hardest  and  roughest  road,  and 
beginning  its  practice  at  twenty-eight  years  of  age, 
yet  by  the  force  of  unconquerable  will  and  per- 
sistent hard  work  he  attained  a  foremost  place  in 
his  profession, 

"  And,  moving  up  from  high  to  higher, 
Became,  on  fortune's  crowning  slope, 
The  pillar  of  a  people's  hope,  — 
The  centre  of  a  world's  desire." 


372      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND    EDUCATION. 

Who  can  tell  what  the  results  might  have  been 
if  the  situations  of  these  two  men  had  been  re- 
versed? 

It  is  often  remarked,  as  ground  of  encourage- 
ment to  young  men,  that  just  such  struggles  as 
these  in  which  Lincoln  engaged  are  necessary  to 
bring  out  the  native  force  of  character,  and  pro- 
duce great  results;  and  no  doubt  this  is  partly 
true.  But,  where  one  succeeds  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, how  many  thousands  fail  ? 

Our  people  frequently  refer,  with  pride,  to  the 
exceptionally  prominent  place  which  Ohio  has 
taken  in  all  the  walks  of  public  and  professional 
life  during  the  last  twenty  years.  That  promi- 
nence is  probably  due  to  the  fact,  that  those 
citizens  of  Ohio  who  have  been  leaders  of  their 
generation  during  the  last  twenty  years  are  the 
first-born  of  the  pioneer  founders  of  our  State. 
The  inspirations  of  the  Revolution  were  still  act- 
ing in  full  vigor  upon  the  people  of  the  original 
thirteen  States  when  the  settlement  of  Ohio  began. 
By  the  law  of  natural  selection,  those  only  became 
pioneers  who  were  best  fitted,  by  natural  energy 
and  force  of  character,  to  conquer  the  difficulties 
attending  such  a  career ;  and  their  children  have 
not  only  inherited  a  part  of  that  energy,  but  have 


ALMEDA   A.   BOOTH.  373 

enjoyed  means  of  culture  which  were  far  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  pioneers  themselves.  In  old  and 
settled  communities,  we  find  more  culture ;  in 
pioneer  life,  more  force.  And  it  will  doubtless 
prove  true,  that,  in  succeeding  generations,  Ohio 
will  produce  a  higher  type  of  scholars,  —  men  of 
arts  and  letters ;  but  it  is  also  probable,  that  they 
will  lose  in  rugged  force  a  part,  at  least,  of  what 
they  gain  in  culture. 

Striking  as  was  the  difference  between  the  two 
examples  referred  to,  the  contrast  of  such  condi- 
tions is  still  greater  when  applied  to  the  possibil- 
ities of  the  culture  and  development  of  woman. 
Man  is  better  fitted  for  a  rough  struggle  with  rude 
elements.  His  is  a  coarser  fibre,  his  "  the  wrest- 
ling thews  that  throw  the  world." 

"Iron-jointed,  supple-sinewed,  he  shall  dive,  and  he  shall 

run, 
Catch  the  wild  goat  by  the  hair,  and  hurl  his  lances  in  the 

sun." 

But  woman's  nature  is  of  a  finer  fibre :  her 
spirit  is  attuned  to  higher  harmonies.  "  All 
dipped  in  angel-instincts,"  she  craves  more  keenly 
than  man  the  celestial  food,  —  the  highest  culture 
which  earth  and  heaven  can  give ;  arid  her  loss  is 


374      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

far  greater  than  his,  when  she  is  deprived  of  those 
means  of  culture  so  rarely  found  in  pioneer  life. 
Success  in  intellectual  pursuits,  under  such  condi- 
tions, is  the  strongest  possible  test  of  her  char- 
acter. 

With  these  general  reflections  as  guides  to  the 
study  of  the  life  we  have  met  to  commemorate, 
let  us  inquire  what  were  the  elements  and  condi- 
tions out  of  which  that  life  grew. 

Almeda  Ann  Booth1  was  a  child  of  the  pio- 
neers, and  of  hardy  New-England  stock.  Her  fa- 
ther, Ezra  Booth,  was  born  near  the  Housatonic 
River,  in  Newton,  Fairneld  County,  Conn.,  Feb. 
14,  1792;  and  her  mother,  Dorcas  Taylor,  was 
born  in  Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  June  30,  1800. 
Both  were  swept  westward,  in  early  childhood,  by 
that  tide  of  emigration  which,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century,  began  to  people  the  wilder- 
ness of  North-eastern  Ohio.  The  precise  date  at 
which  Ezra  Booth  came  to  the  West,  I  have  not 
ascertained.  The  parents  of  Dorcas  Taylor  came 
in  1813,  and  found  a  home  in  the  woods  of 
Nelson. 

As  we  know  the  Western  Reserve  to-day,  with 

1  In  the  Booth  family-Bible  it  is  recorded  Almedah;  and  she 
followed  that  spelling  until  she  was  twenty  years  of  age. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  375 

its  350,000  people,  its  growing  cities,  its  vast  in- 
dustries, and  its  thousands  of  comfortable  and 
elegant  homes,  we  can  hardly  realize  what  it  was 
when  the  parents  of  Miss  Booth  first  saw  it. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  it  was  an  un- 
broken wilderness,  with  but  1,302  white  inhab- 
itants. Indeed,  in  1810  the  whole  number  of 
white  inhabitants  within  the  present  limits  of 
Portage  County  was  considerably  less  than  the 
population  of  Hiram  to-day.  Between  1810  and 
1830,  17,000  pioneers  had  settled  in  this  county, 
and  70,000  had  found  homes  in  the  Western 
Reserve.  They  brought  with  them  little  wealth, 
and  few  of  the  comforts  of  life.  Patient  and 
courageous  toil  was  the  first  necessity  of  the  men 
and  women  who  wrought  the  transformation  of 
that  wilderness  into  the  beautiful  and  happy 
homes  inherited  by  their  children.  But  the  pio- 
neers did  not  forget  the  faith  and  traditions  of 
their  fathers.  While  building  their  homes,  they 
planted  also  the  school  and  the  church,  and  thus 
laid  deep  and  strong  the  foundations  of  pros- 
perity. 

In  the  midst  of  such  stirring  scenes,  Ezra  Booth 
began  his  career.  He  was  a  man  of  more  than 
ordinary  powers  of  mind,  —  gentle,  affectionate, 


376      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

impressible,  and  deeply  religious.  His  early  in- 
tellectual training  did  not  go  beyond  the  rudi- 
ments taught  in  the  common  schools  of  Connecti- 
cut. But  he  was  an  inveterate  reader  of  books; 
and  the  armful  of  choice  volumes  that  lay  on  the 
shelves  of  his  little  library  was  probably  a  greater 
number  than  could  have  been  found  in  one  house 
out  of  every  thousand  on  the  Reserve.  Possessed 
of  slender  means,  he  adopted  a  profession  which 
rendered  the  acquirement  of  wealth  well-nigh 
impossible.  He  early  entered  the  ministry  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  was  assigned  to 
a  circuit  of  nearly  a  thousand  miles,  embracing  in 
its  range  the  township  of  Nelson ;  and  there,  in 
1819,  he  married  Dorcas  Taylor,  and  fixed  his 
home. 

Soon  after  entering  the  ministry,  he  sent  eleven 
silver  dollars  to  England  to  purchase  a  Greek 
lexicon ;  and  he  so  far  mastered  the  language 
as  to  read  the  Greek  Testament  with  ease.  He 
used  to  say,  that,  in  the  early  days  of  his  min- 
istry, he  and  a  Mr.  Charles  Elliott  were  the  only 
Methodist  preachers  west  of  the  Alleghanies  who 
were  able  to  read  Greek. 

In  a  small  frame  house  about  three  and  a  half 
miles  eastward  from  this  place,  on  the  farm  now 


ALMEDA   A.   BOOTH.  377 

owned  by  Mrs.  Ferris  Couch,  Almeda,  the  only 
child  of  Ezra  and  Dorcas  Booth,  was  born  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  August,  1823.  She  inherited  a 
hardy  and  vigorous  constitution,  a  clear  and 
powerful  intellect,  and  a  spirit  of  remarkable 
sweetness  and  gentleness.  These  qualities  of 
mind  and  heart  shone  with  clear  and  steady 
light,  from  early  childhood  until  her  last  hour. 

Her  life  appears  to  fall  into  three  very  distinct 
periods,  separated  from  each  other  by  marked 
events.  Indeed,  she  may  be  said  to  have  lived 
three  separate  lives.  These  will  appear  as  we 
review  her  history. 

Her  first  twelve  years  were  passed  in  Nelson. 
All  the  traditions  that  have  come  to  us  from  that 
period  are  redolent  of  the  fragrance  of  a  sweet 
and  loving  childhood.  In  her  fourth  year  she 
attended  the  district  school  at  Nelson  Centre,  a 
mile  and  a  half  distant  from  her  home.  The 
school  was  taught  at  that  time  by  Miss  Jane 
Hopkins,  afterwards  Mrs.  Nathan  Wadsworth. 
How  long  she  continued  with  this  teacher,  I  have 
not  learned ;  but,  at  the  close  of  Miss  Hopkins's 
school,  Almeda  received  a  locket,  as  the  prize 
for  making  the  greatest  progress  in  spelling. 
Miss  Clarissa  Colton  was  also  her  teacher  in 


378      PKESIDENT  GARFIELD  AND   EDUCATION. 

Nelson  for  several  terms,  and  was  remembered 
with  great  affection  in  after-years.  I  have  not 
been  able  to  learn  the  names  of  her  other  teachers 
in  that  place.  The  honored  President  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  this  college,  who  saw  her 
frequently  when  she  was  a  little  child,  tells  us 
this  pleasing  and  characteristic  incident :  — 

When  Almeda  was  about  twelve  years  of  age, 
she  used  to  puzzle  her  teachers  with  questions, 
and  distress  them  by  correcting  their  mistakes ; 
and  one  of  them  (a  male  teacher,  of  course),  who 
was  too  proud  to  acknowledge  the  corrections  of 
a  child,  called  upon  Mr.  Udall l  for  help  and  advice 
in  regard  to  a  point  of  dispute  between  them. 
Mr.  Udall  told  him  he  was  evidently  in  error, 
and  must  acknowledge  his  mistake.  The  teacher 
was  manly  enough  to  follow  this  wise  advice, 
and  thereafter  made  the  little  girl  his  friend  and 
helper  in  the  scholastic  difficulties  which  he  en- 
countered. It  was  like  her  to  help  him  quietly, 
and  without  boasting.  During  her  whole  life, 
what  one  of  her  friends  ever  heard  an  intimation 
from  her  that  she  had  ever  achieved  an  intellect- 
ual triumph  over  anybody  in  the  world  ? 

In  1835  her  family  removed  to  Mantua,  about 

1  The  President  aforesaid. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  379 

four  miles  to  the  north-west  of  this  place,  where 
they  resided  for  more  than  thirty  years.  Her 
progress  had  been  so  great  under  the  instruction 
of  her  favorite  teacher,  Miss  Colton,  that  her  par- 
ents induced  that  young  lady  also  to  remove  to 
Mantua.  Almeda's  progress  as  a  scholar  was 
continuous  and  rapid.  Dr.  Squire,  who  knew 
her  well  from  the  time  she  first  attended  the 
district  school  at  Mantua,  in  the  winter  of  1835- 
36,  tells  us  that  "she  was  known  as  a  thorough 
scholar,  the  best  speller  in  the  district,  and, 
though  dressed  in  the  plainest  style  possible, 
was  the  pride  of  the  neighborhood  for  her 
youthful  attainments  and  gentleness." 

Hon.  A.  G.  Riddle,  who  knew  her  as  a  child  in 
Mantua,  has  drawn  this  charming  picture  :  — 

"You  ask  me  for -my  recollections  of  Almeda  Booth. 
What  I  can  recall  of  her  associates  her  with  a  single  spring 
and  summer,  —  idyllic,  as  one  long  day  of  green  foliage, 
apple-blossoms,  humming  bees,  and  sunshine,  coming  from 
nothing  which  preceded,  and  connected  with  nothing  which 
followed. 

"  There  was  a  beautiful,  secluded  neighborhood  in  north- 
east Mantua,  where  two  little-travelled  highways  crossed. 
In  the  north-west  angle  thus  formed  stood  the  farmhouse, 
the  homestead  of  Deacon  Seth  Harmon,  my  home  at  that 
time.  The  east-and-west  road  in  its  front  was  filled  with 


380      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

cherry-trees.  South  of  this  highway  stood  a  grand  old  and 
quite  extensive  apple-orchard,  over  the  tops  of  which,  and 
two  or  three  hundred  yards  away,  embowered  in  fruit 
and  forest-trees,  could  be  seen  the  roof  of  Almeda's  home. 
A  winding  foot-path  led  down  from  it  to  the  road  in  front 
of  the  Harmon  homestead. 

"I  knew  Almeda  as  an  only  child,  —  a  maiden  of  twelve 
or  thirteen  years,  well-grown,  ruddy-cheeked,  and  buxom. 
Martha  Harmon,  dark  and  slight,  was  of  about  the  same 
age.  They  were  quite  constant  companions. 

"  About  the  Harmon  house  and  grounds,  in  the  highway, 
along  that  foot-path,  through  the  orchard,  amid  falling  apple- 
blossoms  and  humming  bees,  I  can  see  and  hear  these  two 
laughing,  light-hearted  girls ;  and  that  is  all.  I  can  connect 
them  with  no  incident,  or  any  certain  time. 

"  I  have  a  sort  of  an  impression,  and  only  that,  of  attend- 
ing a  winter  school  with  Almeda. 

"  She  must  have  had  the  power  of  fixing  herself  well  in 
one's  memory.  I  did  not  see 'her  again  for  ten  years,  and 
knew  her  at  once ;  and  I  recall  the  lively  satisfaction  I  felt 
at  being  remembered  by  her.  Through  all  the  years  since,  I 
have  been  familiar  with  her  name,  though  meeting  her  but 
seldom." 

There  must  necessarily  be  much  loneliness  in 
the  life  of  an  only  child.  That  Almeda  felt  this, 
is  evident  from  one  of  her  early  essays  which 
has  been  preserved,  and  in  which  she  says, — 
"I  am  one  of  those  unfortunate  beings  whom 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  381 

Mrs.  Sigourney  so  much  pities,  —  a  person  destitute 
of  brothers  and  sisters."  And  yet,  for  a  thought- 
ful child,  such  a  life  had  its  compensations.  She 
found  early  and  sweet  companionship  with  her 
father  in  his  studies,  and,  like  him,  became  AO. 
ardent  lover  of  books.  At  that  period  few 
juvenile  books  were  published;  and  the  stirring 
works  of  legend  and  romance  rarely  found  their 
way  to  the  shelves  of  a  preacher's  library.  The 
extent  and  character  of  her  early  reading  I  have 
not  learned ;  but  she  once  told  me  that  she  read 
Rollin's  "  Ancient  History "  and  Gibbon's  "  De- 
cline and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  "  when  she 
was  twelve  years  of  age.  I  doubt  if,  at  so  early 
an  age,  any  person  in  this  assembly  had  done  as 
much. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  she  had  pretty  thor- 
oughly mastered  the  studies  then  taught  in  the 
district  school ;  and,  for  a  short  time,  she  at- 
tended a  select  school  in  Painesville,  boarding  at 
the  house  of  a  Rev.  Mr.  Winans.  When  she  was 
seventeen,  she  taught  her  first  school,  in  a  log 
schoolhouse,  near  her  home  in  Mantua.  She 
next  engaged  to  teach,  for  five  months,  the  school 
near  what  was  known  as  the  "Brick  Tavern," 
south  of  Mantua  Centre.  There,  as  in  her  first 


382      PRESIDENT  GAKFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

school,  she  was  very  popular;  but  she  became 
homesick,  and  by  the  aid  of  friends  secured  a 
change  in  the  contract,  by  which  the  term  was 
shortened  to  three  months.  She  greatly  disliked 
the  custom  of  that  time -which  required  her  to 
"  board  around  the  district ; "  because  it  resulted 
in  such  a  waste  of  her  time,  and  cut  her  off  from 
the  opportunity  of  reading  which  she  so  highly 
prized.  But  she  conquered  all  the  discomforts  of 
the  work,  and  continued  to  teach,  using  for  the 
advancement  of  her  own  culture  the  pittance 
then  paid  to  a  woman  teacher,  which  sometimes 
did  not  exceed  four  dollars  per  month.1 

1  Dr.  Squire  has  furnished  me  with  the  following  interesting 
facts  concerning  Miss  Booth's  teaching  in  Mantua.  He  says, 
"I  learn  from  the  records  of  the  Booth  school-district,  that 
Almeda  taught  there  during  the  winter  1844-45.  The  studies 
taught  were  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  grammar,  and  geogra- 
phy. The  term  ended  Feb.  14,  1845  ;  wages,  eight  dollars  per 
month.  The  report  is  signed  '  Almeda  A.  Booth.'  Similar  re- 
port for  the  same  district  for  the  term  ending  March  6,  1846  : 
wages  seven  dollars  per  month.  For  same  district,  term  ending 
Aug.  28,  1846  :  average  daily  attendance,  sixteen.  Philosophy, 
history,  and  botany  taught,  in  addition  to  common  branches  : 
wages  four  dollars  per  month.  Report  for  term  ending  March  5, 
1847 :  algebra  and  common  branches  ;  wages  nine  dollars  per 
month.  The  month,  at  that  time,  probably  meant  twenty-six 
days  of  school."  It  will  be  seen  that  wages  for  summer  were 
much  lower  than  for  winter. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  383 

In  1842  and  1843  she  attended  during  several 
terms  the  Asbury  Seminary,  at  Chagrin  Falls, 
which  at  that  time  was  under  the  charge  of  L.  D. 
Williams,  who  was  afterwards  a  distinguished 
professor  in  Meadville  College.  In  later  years 
she  frequently  spoke  of  him  in  terms  of  the  high- 
est respect  and  reverence.  I  have  not  been  able 
to  learn  the  range  of  her  studies  at  Chagrin  Falls ; 
but  she  has  left  a  small  package  of  essays,  written 
as  school  exercises  while  there,  which  exhibit  that 
clearness  and  masterful  force  of  expression  so 
characteristic  of  her  style  in  later  years.  The 
penmanship  bears  a  few  traces  of  the  .formal 
school-girl  hand,  especially  in  the  construction  of 
the  capital  letters ;  but  it  also  shows  the  outline 
of  that  elegant  and  graceful  chirography  with 
which  we  are  now  so  familiar.  The  brief  mar- 
ginal notes  and  criticisms  of  her  instructors  indi- 
cate the  pride  and  satisfaction  they  felt  in  her 
development.  One  of  these  notes  is  signed  "  Mat- 
tison  ;  "  another,  "  H.  H.  Moore  ;  "  and  another  is 
in  these  words :  "  Very  good.  The  errors  are 
few,  and  none  of  them  bad  ones.  L.  D.  W."  (evi- 
dently L.  D.  Williams). 

I  have  read  these  short  essays  with  a  deep  and 
mournful  interest.  Though  written  as  formal 


384      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

school  exercises,  they  are  charming  pictures  of 
the  progress  of  her  mind  and  the  genuine  earnest- 
ness of  her  convictions.  To  quote  them  here, 
however,  would  be  unjust  to  her  maturer  fame. 
Among  them  is  a  dialogue,  in  her  handwriting, 
between  herself  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Hayden, 
daughter  of  the  late  Rev.  William  Hayden. 
Even  at  that  early  age,  Miss  Booth  exhibited 
unusual  aptitude  for  that  species  of  dramatic  com- 
position in  which  she  subsequently  developed  so 
much  power. 

Until  she  reached  the  age  of  twenty-four,  her 
life  had  been  devoted  to  home  duties,  to  study, 
and  teaching.  In  the  family  of  her  nearest  neigh- 
bor, she  had  formed  the  intimate  acquaintance  of 
Martyii  Harmon,  a  young  man  of  rare  and  bril- 
liant promise.  Like  herself,  he  was  an  enthusiastic 
student.  Ambitious  of  culture,  he  had  pushed 
his  way  through  the  studies  of  Meadville  College, 
and  was  graduated  with  honor.  He  had  given 
Almeda  his  love,  and  received  in  return  the  rich 
gift  of  her  great  heart.  The  day  of  their  wedding 
had  been  fixed.  He  was  away  in  Kentucky,  teach- 
ing ;  while  she  was  in  Mantua,  preparing  to  adorn 
and  bless  the  home  of  their  love.  On  the  6th  of 
March,  1848,  he  died  of  some  sudden  illness,  and 


ALMEDA   A.   BOOTH.  385 

was  buried  near  Frankfort,  Ky.  Funeral  services 
were  held  in  Mantua,  at  which  Almeda  took  her 
place  as  chief  mourner.  Her  plans  of  life  and  the 
hopes  of  her  earthly  future  seemed  buried  in  his 
grave. 

This  event  closes  the  first  period  of  her  history. 
It  seemed  for  a  time  to  end  her  ambition  and  her 
hopes.  Her  heart  was  wedded  by  ties  as  sacred 
as  any  which  marriage  can  consecrate.  From  that 
time  forward  she  walked  alone  in  the  solitude  of 
virgin  widowhood. 

In  her  subsequent  life  she  rarely  spoke  of  the 
suffering  of  that  period ;  but  she  never  ceased  to 
cherish  the  memory  of  Martyn  Harmon  as  that  of 
an  immortal  husband  who  awaited  her  coming  in 
the  life  beyond.  Her  faithfulness  to  him  excluded 
the -thought  of  marriage  with  any  other. 

After  such  a  loss,  what  was  left  to  a  soul  like 
hers?  To  her  heart,  the  consolations  of  the 
Christian  faith  ;  and,  to  her  life,  the  power  of  serv- 
ing and  blessing  others.  It  is  one  of  the  pre- 
cious mysteries-  of  sorrow,  that  it  finds  solace  in 
unselfish  work.  Patient  and  uncomplaining,  with 
a  spirit  chastened  and  sweetened  by  her  great 
sorrow,  Almeda  gathered  up  the  fragments  of  her 
broken  life,  and  devoted  her  powers  to  the  work 
of  teaching. 


386      PKESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

Making  her  father's  home  the  centre  of  her 
activities,  she  commenced  teaching  in  the  most 
difficult  and  unpromising  districts  in  her  neigh- 
borhood. Her  success  was  such  as  few  teachers 
in  a  similar  field  have  ever  achieved.  She  found 
happiness  in  her  work,  and  was  rewarded  with  the 
admiration  and  love  of  those  whose  minds  were 
moulded  and  guided  by  her  influence. 

Besides  this,  she  found  solace  and  strength  in 
her  old  habit  of  reading.  Her  spirit,  ranging 
beyond  the  narrow  circle  of  her  every-day  life, 
found  in  books  a  noble  companionship  with  the 
good  and  great  of  other  days. 

I  find  among  her  papers  a  few  pages  of  personal 
reminiscences,  written  twenty-one  years  ago,  which 
probably  refer  to  the  period  of  her  life  of  which 
I  am  now  speaking.  I  am  sure  her  friends  will 
listen  to  her  own  words  with  more  pleasure  than  to 
any  thing  that  I  can  say.  She  writes :  — 

"  Through  the  mists  and  clouds  of  later  life,  remembrance 
brings  a  warm  glow  to  our  hearts,  as  we  think  of  the  friends 
we  loved,  and  the  books  we  read.  Yes,  the  books !  Who 
has  not  some  old,  torn,  dingy  favorite  of  a  book,  that  he 
remembers  with  more  affection  than  any  volume  he  has  seen 
for  many  a  year  ?  I  remember  one  that  to  me,  in  those 
years,  was  a  source  of  never-failing  delight.  I  fondly  cher- 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  387 

ish  the  memory  of  that  old  book,  both  for  itself  and  its 
pleasant  associations.  I  chanced  to  find  it  in  a  family  where 
I  was  allowed  to  visit,  into  whose  possession  it  had  come  in 
payment  of  a  debt  for  which  nothing  else  could  be  obtained. 
It  was  a  bound  volume  of  a  periodical  that  had  been  started 
in  Philadelphia  by  some  lover  of  literature  who  mistook  the 
tastes  of  the  age  ;  and  his  magazine  soon  failed  for  want  of 
patronage.  It  had  been  bound ;  but  when  I  was  so  happy 
as  to  make  its  acquaintance,  its  leaves  had  escaped  from 
their  confinement,  causing  me  no  little  trouble  as  I  turned 
over  the  unwieldy  mass.  It  contained  no  original  matter, 
but  choice  selections  from  English  and  American  literature. 
Here  I  first  read  'L' Allegro'  and  'II  Penseroso;'  and, 
though  I  was  delighted  with  the 

'  Goddess  fair  and  free, 
In  heaven  ycleped  Euphrosyne, 
And  by  men  heart-easing  Mirth,' 

yet  by  the  time  I  had  read  through  to  — 

'  These  pleasures  melancholy  give, 
And  I  with  thee  will  choose  to  live,' 

I  usually  felt  like  giving  in  my  adhesion  to  the  'goddess 
sage  and  holy.'  There,  too,  I  read  'Mazeppa,'  —  that  wild 
ride  related 

'  After  dread  Pultowa's  day, 
When  fortune  left  the  royal  Swede; ' 

and  I  could  never  understand  how,  when  'twas  done,  the  king 
could  have  been  'an  hour  asleep.'  There  were  McKenzie's 
'  Man  of  Feeling ; '  Goldsmith's  simple,  natural,  and  inimit- 


388      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

able  'Vicar  of  Wakefield;'  also  those  stories  of  exquisite 
beauty  and  pathos,  '  The  Lights  and  Shadows  of  Scottish 
Life.'  And  there  I  first  found  the  letters  of  our  own  Dr. 
Franklin,  and  his  life,  written  by  himself,  fer  his  son,  which 
I  could  never  sufficiently  admire  :  it  seemed  so  truthful  and 
honest;  as  he  related  the  indiscretions  of  his  early  years,  and 
remembered  his  errors,  one  by  one.  But  I  read  nothing  in 
that  book  with  more  thrilling  interest  than  the  old  English 
ballad  of  '  Chevy  Chase.'  As  I  read  how  that  famous  hunt 
fell  out,  how  noble  knights  and  barons  bold  went  down  in 
death,  how  brave  Lord  Percy  fell,  and  Scotland's  pride,  Earl 
Douglas,  too,  my  enthusiasm  was  never  chilled  by  a  thought 
that  I  was  reading  events  '  totally  fictitious,'  as  Spaulding 
tells  us  they  are.  But,  of  all  the  treasures  I  there  found,  I 
oftenest  read  the  letters  of  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montague, 
•which  have  always  been  regarded  as  models  of  epistolary 
composition.  It  is  objected  that  she  sometimes  seems  un- 
amiable  and  unfeeling ;  yet,  even  then,  she  is  so  witty  and 
charming,  one  is  almost  tempted  to  forgive  her.  Still,  I 
think,  there  is  reason  for  this  charge  against  her  earliest 
letters.  The  absurdities  and  follies  of  the  gay  and  courtly 
circle  in  which  she  moved  appeared  so  ridiculous,  in  the  light 
of  her  strong  understanding,  that,  in  letters  to  .  her  friends, 
she  often  hit  off  those  she  met  with  the  severest  sarcasm. 
Addison,  Pope,  and  other  distinguished  writers  of  that  age, 
were  proud  of  her  friendship ;  but  Pope  quailed  before  her 
peerless  wit  and  sarcasm,  and  from  a  most  ardent  friend 
turned  to  an  implacable  enemy." 


ALMEDA   A.   BOOTH.  389 

After  describing,  at  some  length,  the  character 
and  career  of  Lady  Montague,  the  manuscript 
concludes :  — 

"  She  [Lady  Montague]  was  proficient  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
and  seems  to  have  read  almost  every  thing  that  had  ever  been 
written  in  any  language.  In  a  letter  to  her  daughter,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  education  of  her  granddaughter,  she  says,  '  Learn- 
ing, if  she  has  a  real  taste  for  it,  will  not  only  make  her 
contented,  but  happy.  No  entertainment  is  so  cheap  as 
reading,  nor  any  pleasure  so  lasting.'  Thus  much  for  the 
old  book.  I  saw  its  friendly,  honest  face,  soiled  and  time- 
worn,  only  a  few  months  ago ;  but  it  is  not  so  perishable  as 
earth's  frail  children.  I  gazed  upon  it  with  mingled  emotions 
of  pain  and  pleasure ;  for  I  remembered  that  the  dear  ones, 
who  in  those  happy  hours  had  read  from  that  book  with  me, 
were  all  gone.  The  glad  voices  of  seven  children  once  rang 
through  that  home ;  but  now  every  one  is  hushed  in  death, 
and  the  poor,  stricken  parents  are  left  alone.  I  remembered 
when  the  father  —  a  man  of  uncommon  tenderness  of  feel- 
ing —  said  to  me,  a  few  days  before  his  last  child  was  laid 
in  the  grave,  his  voice  trembling,  and  his  eyes  full  of  tears, 
'  Oh !  I  had  hoped  the  Lord  would  spare  me  one  child ;  but 
his  will  be  done.' 

"  So  that  old  book  is  very  dear  to  me." 

This  charming  sketch  of  the  old  book  is  a  strik- 
ing picture  of  her  own  mind  and  heart  during  the 
early  days  of  her  sorrow. 

But,  by  slow  degrees,  her  sorrow  gave  place  to 


390      PRESIDENT   GABFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

ambition  for  larger  culture.  In  the  autumn  of 
1848  she  attended  a  select  school  at  Mantua 
Centre,  taught  by  Norman  Dunshee,  and,  among 
her  other  studies,  began  Latin.  In  the  winter  of 
1849-50  she  taught  the  school. in  the  Darwin- 
Atwater  district ;  and,  in  the  winter  of  1850-51, 
taught  at  Hiram  Rapids,  her  last  district  school. 
She  is  still  remembered  with  enthusiastic  affec- 
tion by  the  people  of  that  neighborhood. 

Her  success  as  a  teacher  was  well  known  to 
Charles  D.  Wilber,  at  whose  suggestion  President 
Hayden  secured  her  services  to  the  young  Eclec- 
tic; and  in  the  spring  of  1851  she  came  here  as 
a  teacher  in  the  English  department.  Up  to  that 
time  no  lady  had  taught  in  the  Eclectic,  except 
in  the  primary  department,  which  was  established 
at  the  opening  of  the  institution,  in  November, 
1850,  and  maintained  for  several  years.  Before 
the  end  of  her  first  term,  the  trustees  found  that 
they  had  drawn  a  rich  prize,  in  securing  her  ser- 
vices in  the  institution. 

The  Eclectic  was  compelled  to  create  its  own 
scholarship  and  culture.  Very  few  of  its  early 
students  had  gone  beyond  the  ordinary  studies  of 
the  district  school ;  and  a  large  majority  of  them 
needed  thorough  discipline  in  the  common  English 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  391 

branches.  I  doubt  if  any  teacher  at  Hiram  was 
equal  to  Miss  Booth  in  the  power  to  inspire  such 
students  with  the  spirit  of  earnest,  hard  work,  for 
the  love  of  it. 

In  August  next  it  will  be  twenty-five  years 
since  I  first  saw  her.  I  came  to  the  Eclectic 
as  a  student,  in  the  fall  term  of  1851 ;  and,  a  few 
days  after  the  beginning  of  the  term,  I  saw  a  class 
of  three,  reciting  in  mathematics,  —  geometry,  I 
think.  They  sat  on  one  of  the  red  benches,  in 
the  centre  aisle  of  the  lower  chapel.  I  had  never 
seen  a  geometry ;  and,  regarding  both  teacher  and 
class  with  a  feeling  of  reverential  awe  for  the 
intellectual  height  to  which  they  had  climbed,  I 
studied  their  faces  so  closely  that  I  seem  to  see 
them  now  as  distinctly  as  I  saw  them  then.  And 
it  has  been  my  good  fortune  since  that  time  to 
claim  them  all  as  intimate  friends.  The  teacher 
was  Thomas  Munnell;  and  the  members  of  his 
class  were  William  B.  Hazen,  George  A.  Baker, 
and  Almeda  A.  Booth. 

Let  us  pause  here  to  consider  the  situation  and 
attainments  of  Miss  Booth  in  1851,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  what  we  may  call  her  second  life.  She 
was  twenty-eight  years  of  age.  In  many  respects 
her  character  was  fully  matured.  She  had  enjoyed 


392      PRESIDENT    GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

somewhat  better  advantages  than  most  women  of 
that  period,  who,  born  of  the  pioneers  and  un- 
blessed by  wealth,  were  reared  in  the  narrow  circle 
of  country  life.  Though  she  had  made  the  most 
of  her  opportunities,  yet  she  had  hardly  entered 
the  circle  of  that  larger  scholarship  and  broader 
culture  which  women  enjoy  in  older  communities. 

As  a  means  of  estimating  more  accurately  her 
abilities  and  merits,  let  us  contrast  her  attainments 
at  that  time  with  those  of  a  woman  of  wider  fame 
who  was  greatly  admired  by  Miss  Booth,  and  who 
was  very  like  her  in  intellectual  force. 

Margaret  Fuller  was  born  at  Cambridge,  Mass., 
and  from  early  life  breathed  the  atmosphere  of  the 
highest  culture  of  New  England.  Her  father,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  and  accomplished  French 
scholar,  thoroughly  read  in  general  history  and 
literature,  a  prominent  lawyer,  and  for  many  years 
a  distinguished  member  of  Congress,  early  devoted 
himself  personally  to  the  work  of  his  daughter's 
education.  At  six  years  of  age  she  was  able  to 
read  Latin ;  and  soon  her  young  imagination  was 
fired  by  the  strong  and  beautiful  legends  of  classic 
history  and  mythology.  Wandering  at  will  in  her 
father's  well-filled  library,  and  gathering  such  food 
as  her  young  spirit  could  assimilate,  she  read, 


ALSIEDA  A.   BOOTH.  393 

when  eight  years  of  age,  "  Romeo  and  Juliet,"  the 
quaint  and  wonderful  humor  of  Cervantes,  and 
the  bright  pictures  of  Parisian  life  portrayed  in 
the  pages  of  Moliere.  In  her  nineteenth  year  she 
had  finished  a  thorough  course  in  one  of  the  best 
training-schools  of  Massachusetts.  At  twenty-two 
she  had  mastered  the  German  language,  and  read 
its  principal  authors.  At  twenty-three  she  was 
teaching  the  languages,  and  attracting  to  herself 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  all  who  came  within  her 
reach.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  says  of  her  at  that 
period,  "  She  was  an  active  and  inspiring  com- 
panion and  correspondent ;  and  all  the  heart, 
thought,  and  nobleness  of  New  England  seemed 
at  that  moment  related  to  her,  and  she  to  it."  At 
twenty-five  she  was  translating  the  correspondence 
of  Goethe,  was  devouring  the  works  of  Madame 
de  Stael  in  French,  and  of  Epictetus  in  Latin ; 
and  was  ranging  at  will  through  the  realms  of 
English  literature  and  philosophy.  At  twenty- 
eight  she  became  the  editor  of  a  literary  journal, 
and  was  assisted  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson, 
George  Ripley,  and  many  other  prominent  writers. 
Her  wide  acquaintance,  and  still  wider  correspond- 
ence, placed  at  her  command  the  culture  and 
literary  wealth  of  both  hemispheres.  From  that 


394      PBESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

time  forward  she  rose  rapidly  from  height  to 
height,  until  a  tragic  death  closed  her  career  in 
1850.  Her  native  powers  of  mind  were  undoubt- 
edly great ;  and  she  would  not  have  remained  un- 
known in  any  sphere  of  life,  however  humble. 
But  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  very  much  of 
her  success  was  due  to  her  rare  opportunities  for 
early  culture. 

Contrast  with  this  brilliant  picture  the  situa- 
tion of  Miss  Booth  at  twenty-eight  years  of  age. 
We  have  followed  the  history  of  her  toilful  life 
up  to  that  period.  We  saw  her  moving  in  a  nar- 
row .and  humble  sphere,  creating  her  own  means 
of  culture,  unaided  by  the  companionship  of 
superior  minds  to  inspire  and  guide  her  develop- 
ment. After  the  light  of  her  young  life  had  been 
quenched  in  a  great  sorrow,  we  saw  her  turning 
sadly  away  from  the  wreck  of  her  hopes,  and 
beginning  the  hard  task  of  creating  the  new  con- 
ditions out  of  which  she  might  gain  a  broader, 
deeper  culture,  and  become  more  useful  to  her 
generation. 

We  found  her  not  farther  advanced  in  technical 
scholarship  at  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  than 
Margaret  Fuller  was  at  seventeen  ;  and  even  then 
her  further  advancement  depended  upon  what  she 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  395 

could  accomplish  for  herself,  while  teaching  six 
or  seven  great  classes  a  day,  and  discharging  the 
other  numberless  duties  which  fell  to  her  lot  as 
chief  lady  teacher  in  a  mixed  school  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  scholars. 

Highly  as  I  appreciate  the  character  of  Mar- 
garet Fuller,  greatly  as  I  admire  her  remarkable 
abilities,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  in  no  four 
years  of  her  life  did  her^achievements,  brilliant  as 
they  were,  equal  the  work  accomplished  by  Miss 
Booth  during  the  four  years  that  followed  her 
coming  to  Hiram. 

I  was  never  a  member  of  a  class  that  recited  to 
her,  and  I  cannot  speak  of  her  work  as  a  teacher 
as  seen  from  the  stand-point  of  a  pupil ;  but  I  know 
from  personal  observation,  and  from  the  unanimous 
.testimony  of  thousands  who  were  so  fortunate  as 
to  be  her  pupils,  that  her  power  over  classes  as  a 
whole,  and  over  every  member,  was  very  great  and 
beneficent.  In  the  earlier  years  of  her  teaching 
here,  she  frequently  took  advanced  classes  in 
grammar  and  arithmetic,  numbering  from  ninety 
to  one  hundred  each.  Without  any  parade  of 
authority,  without  appearing  to  govern  at  all,  she 
always  held  them  in  most  admirable  order ;  and, 
what  was  still  more  remarkable,  each  pupil  felt 


396      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

that  his  relations  to  her  were  those  of  very  direct 
personal  responsibility  and  sympathy ;  and  that  he 
owed  her  a  personal  apology  for  any  dereliction 
or  failure  on  his  part,  and  a  debt  of  affectionate 
gratitude  for  the  largest  measure  of  his  success. 
Her  classes  in  botany  and  astronomy  were  always 
filled  with  enthusiasm  for  their  work,  and  with 
affectionate  admiration  for  Miss  Booth. 

She  did  not  deliver  formal  lectures  on  these 
subjects ;  but  she  carried  to  almost  every  recita- 
tion a  memorandum  of  brief  notes,  from  which, 
during  the  course  of  the  lesson,  she  threw  out 
fertile  and  striking  suggestions  which  illuminated 
the  subject,  and  made  every  pupil  feel  that  to  be 
absent  from  a  recitation  of  her  class  was  to  suffer 
personal  loss.  I  have  found  among  her  papers 
many  of  these  memoranda,  full  of  strong  and. 
beautiful  suggestions. 

Besides  doing  her  full  share  of  the  heavy  work 
of  the  class-room,  Miss  Booth  had  special  charge 
of  the  ladies,  and,  from  1852  onward,  devoted 
much  time  to  them  as  their  confidential  counsellor 
and  friend.  There  are  hundreds  of  noble  women 
who  have  worn  the  royal  crown  of  maternity  these 
many  years,  —  and  some  of  them  are  present  to-day, 
—  whose  hearts  are  still  full  of  precious  memories 


ALMEDA   A.   BOOTH.  397 

of  those  familiar  lectures,  or  rather  conversations, 
in  the  lower  chapel,  in  which  Miss  Booth  gave 
them  the  benefit  of  her  rich  experience  and  wise 
counsel  in  the  conduct  of  life.  The  notes  of  some 
of  these  conversations  I  have  found  among  her 
manuscripts.  One  was  written  out  in  full,  in  which 
she  unfolded  her  conception  of  how  solemn  a  thing 
it  is  to  live,  and  to  perform  those  duties  which  fall 
to  the  lot  of  woman. 

She  aided  in  organizing  and  maintaining  the 
first  ladies'  literary  society  in  the  Eclectic,  and 
for  several  years  took  an  active  part  in  its  pro- 
ceedings. Her  essays  prepared  for  its  meetings 
are  models  of  sound  judgment  and  of  finished, 
graceful  style. 

I  first  became  acquainted  with  her  qualities  as 
a  writer  during  the  spring  term  of  1852,  when 
Cory  don  E.  Fuller  and  I  were  appointed  to  aid 
her  in  writing  a  colloquy  for  the  public  exercises 
at  the  close  of  the  school  year.  Having  chosen  a 
theme  founded  on  historical  events  in  the  time  of 
Pope  Leo  X.,  she  sketched  the  outline  of  the 
piece,  assigned  portions  to  her  two  associates,  set 
them  to  reading  up  the  history  of  the  period  to 
which  the  piece  related,  directed  and  corrected 
their  work,  and  adapted  it  to  her  own,  cast  the 


398      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND    EDUCATION. 

parts,  criticised  and  trained  those  who  were  to 
perform  them,  took  .the  most  difficult  and  least 
desirable  part  herself,  and  put  the  piece  on  the 
stage  with  such  skill  as  to  surprise  and  delight  the 
great  audience  that  assembled  under  the  bower 
built  among  the  apple-trees  north  of  the  Seminary. 
I  esteemed  myself  especially  fortunate  and  highly 
honored  in  being  chosen  to  aid  her  in  that  work. 
My  admiration  of  her  knowledge  and  ability  was 
unbounded.  And  even  now,  after  the  glowing 
picture  painted  upon  my  memory  in  the  strong 
colors  of  youthful  enthusiasm  has  been  shaded 
down  by  the  colder  and  more  sombre  tints  which 
a  quarter  of  a  century  has  added,  I  still  regard 
her  work  on  that  occasion  as  possessing  great 
merit.  I  have  read  again  some  of  the  pages  of 
the  faded  manuscript,  a  few  of  which  survive ; 
and  I  find  that  her  part  of  it  still  justifies  much 
of  my  early  enthusiasm. 

To  her  marked  success  in  this  piece  is  due  the 
fact,  that,  during  many  subsequent  years,  an  origi- 
nal drama  —  or,  in  the  school  dialect,  a  "  collo- 
quy "  —  was  the  most  attractive  feature  of  com- 
mencement-days. There  are  many  present  to-day 
who  remember  these  colloquies,  —  that  of  1853, 
founded  on  the  Book  of  Esther ;  "  Burr  and  Blen- 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  399 

nerhassett,"  in  1854,  when  O.  P.  Miller  and  Philip 
Burns  played  the  heavy  parts  of  Adams  and  Jef- 
ferson, and  "Rhodes,  Pettibone,  and  Williams,  the 
less  pious  but  more  exciting  rdles  of  Arnold, 
Burr,  and  Blennerhassett ;  "  Lafayette,"  in  1856 ; 
"  Ivanhoe,"  in  1857,  in  which  the  stirring  scenes 
of  the  Crusades  were  revived;  "The  Conspiracy 
of  Orsini,"  in  1858  (suggested  by  the  reading  of 
Ruffini's  "Doctor  Antonio"),  in  which  Elias  A. 
Ford  trod  the  stage  as  Louis  Napoleon,  with 
Electa  Beecher  as  empress,  and  Amzi  Atwater  as 
prime  minister,  while  White,  Chamberlin,  and 
Ferry  were  treacherously  seeking  his  imperial  life. 
Then  there  was  "The  Highland  Chiefs,"  in  1859, 
.in  which  Henry  James  and  Henry  White  were 
Lochiel  and  McAlpine,  in  deadly  feud  with  Cham- 
berlin and  Dudley,  Lords  of  Glencoe  and  Kep- 
pock,  mustering  their  clans  for  battle  to  determine 
which  of  these  fierce  knights  should  win  the 
hands  of  Sophia  Williams  and  Myra  Robbins,  the 
Ellen  and  the  Margaret  of  the  hour.  There  was 
"  Pickwickian  Politics,"  in  1860,  with  Brown  and 
Bennett  as  stars;  and  "Zenobia,"  in  1861,  in 
which  Mary  E.  White  was  the  proud  Queen  of 
Palmyra,  with  half  a  score  of  young  men  as  bold 
Romans  leading  her  away  in  triumph.  In  all 


400      PEESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

these  pieces,  the  parts  which  were  surest  to  touch 
the  heart,  and  win  approval,  were  those  written  by 
Miss  Booth.  They  showed  how  varied  were  her 
intellectual  resources,  and  with  what  power  and 
grace  she  could  employ  them. 

Occupied  as  she  was  in  the  daily  discharge  of 
such  exacting  duties,  one  would  think  she  had 
small  leisure  for  any  other  work.  But  we  shall 
see  what  more  she  was  able  to  accomplish.  She 
saw,  that,  so  long  as  she  taught  only  the  English 
studies,  the  bright  and  ambitious  pupils  to  whom 
she  was  so  strongly  attached  would  pass  out  of 
her  reach  by  entering  upon  studies  in  which  she 
could  not  guide  them.  The  desire  to  avoid  this 
gave  a  new  impulse  to  her  ambition  for  higher 
scholarship ;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1851  she  began 
those  studies  necessary  to  fit  her  for  teaching  in 
the  higher  grades.  When  a  class  was  formed  in 
any  tiling  she  had  not  mastered,  she  arranged  to 
have  it  recite  before  or  after  school-hours,  and 
took  her  place  as  one  of  its  members.  Thus  she 
kept  in  advance  of  her  own  pupils,  and  abreast 
with  the  foremost  students  of  the  institution. 

I  am  not  certain  when  she  began  Greek;  but 
I  remember  that  she  and  I  were  members  of  the 
class  that  began  Xenophon's  "  Anabasis,"  in  the  fall 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  401 

term  of  1852.  Near  the  close  of  that  term,  I  also 
began  to  teach  in  the  Eclectic,  and  thereafter, 
like  her,  could  only  keep  up  my  studies  outside 
of  my  own  class-hours.  In  mathematics  and  the 
physical  sciences,  I  was  far  behind  her ;  but  we 
were  nearly  at  the  same  place  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
each  having  studied  them  about  three  terms.  She 
had  made  her  home  at  President  Hayden's,  almost 
from  the  first ;  and  I  became  a  member  of  his  family 
at  the  beginning  of  the  winter  term  of  1852-53. 
Thereafter,  for  nearly  two  years,  she  and  I  studied 
together,  and  recited  in  the  same  classes  (frequent- 
ly without  other  associates),  till  we  had  nearly 
completed  the  classical  course. 

From  a  diary  which  I  then  kept,  and  in  which 
my  own  studies  are  recorded,  I  am  able  to  state, 
quite  accurately,  what  she  accomplished  in  the 
classics,  from  term  to  term,  in  the  two  following 
years.  During  the  winter  and  spring  terms  of 
1853,  she  read  Xenophon's  "Memorabilia"  entire, 
reciting  to  Professor '  Dunshee.  In  the  summer 
vacation  of  1853,  twelve  of  the  more  advanced 
students  engaged  Professor  Dunshee  as  a  tutor 
for  one  month.  John  Harnit,  H.  W.  Everest, 
Philip  Burns,  C.  C.  Foote,  Miss  Booth,  and  I  were 
of  the  number.  A  literary  society  was  formed,  in 


402      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

which  all  took  part.  During  those  four  weeks, 
besides  taking  an  active  part  in  the  literary  exer- 
cises of  the  society,  Miss  Booth  read  thoroughly, 
and  for  the  first  time,  the  "  Pastorals  "  of  Virgil,  — 
that  is,  the  "  Georgics  "  and  "  Bucolics  "  entire,  — 
and  the  first  six  books  of  Homer's  "  Iliad,"  accom- 
panied by  a  thorough  drill  in  the  Latin  or  Greek 
grammar  at  each  recitation.  I  am  sure  that  none 
of  those  who  recited  with  her  would  say  she  was 
behind  the  foremost  in  the  thoroughness  of  her 
work  or  the  elegance  of  her  translations. 

During  the  fall  term  of  1853,  she  read  one 
hundred  pages  of  Herodotus,  and  about  the  same 
amount  of  Livy.  During  that  term  also,  Professors 
Dunshee  and  Hull,  and  Miss  Booth  and  I,  met  at 
her  room  two  evenings  of  each  week,  to  make  a 
joint  translation  of  the  book  of  Romans.  Pro- 
fessor Dunshee  contributed  his  studies  of  the  Ger- 
man commentators  De  Wette  and  Tholuck ;  and 
each  of  the  translators  made  some  special  study 
for  each  meeting.  How  nearly  we  completed  the 
translation  I  do  not  remember;  but  I  do  remember 
that  the  contributions  and  criticisms  of  Miss  Booth 
were  remarkable  for  suggestiveness  and  sound 
judgment.  Our  work  was  more  thorough  than 
rapid ;  for  I  find  this  entry  in  my  diary  for  Dec. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  403 

15,  1853 :  "  Translation  Society  sat  three  nours  at 
Miss  Booth's  room,  and  agreed  upon  the  transla- 
tion of  nine  verses." 

During  the  winter  term  of  1853-54,  she  con- 
tinued to  read  Livy,  and  also  read  the  whole  of 
Demosthenes  "  On  the  Crown."  The  members  of 
the  class  in  Demosthenes  were  Miss  Booth,  A. 
Hull,  C.  C.  Foote,  and  myself. 

During  the  spring  term  of  1854,  she  read  the 
"Germania"  and  "Agricola"  of  Tacitus,  and  a 
portion  of  Hesiod. 

In  the  autumn  of  1854,  having  secured  from  the 
Board  of  Trustees  a  leave  of  absence  for  one  year, 
she  entered  the  Senior  class  of  Oberlin  College. 
Though  she  had  not  yet  completed  several  of  the 
important  Junior  studies,  yet  during  her  one  year 
in  college  she  not  only  brought  up  all  arrears,  but 
thoroughly  accomplished  all  the  work  of  the  Senior 
year,  and  in  August,  1855,  was  graduated  as 
Bachelor  of  Arts  in  the  full  classical  course,  rank- 
ing among  the  very  first  in  her  class.  Three  years 
later  she  received  the  honorary  degree  of  Master 
of  Arts. 

A  student  no  farther  advanced  than  Miss 
Booth  was  in  1851,  usually  needs  three  years  of 
preparatory  study  to  enter  the  Freshman  year, 


404      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

and  four  years  more  to  complete  the  course, 
But  in  the  four  years  that  followed  her  coming 
to  Hiram,  she  taught  ten  full  terms,  prepared  her- 
self for  college,  and  completed  with  remarkable 
thoroughness  the  full  course  of  college  study.  If 
any  man  or  woman  has  done  more  in  the  same 
length  of  time,  I  do  not  know  it.  It  should  be 
mentioned,  to  the  honor  of  Oberlin  College,  that, 
but  for  the  wise  and  liberal  policy  which  opened 
the  full  course  of  study  to  women,  Miss  Booth 
could  hardly  have  taken  the  bachelor's  degree 
anywhere  in  this  country. 

She  returned  to  Hiram  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fall  term  of  1855,  and  for  ten  years,  without  inter- 
mission, devoted  herself  to  the  work  of  teaching. 
Each  year  added  to  her  thoroughness  in  the  class- 
room, and  increased  her  influence  over  students. 
Besides  taking  a  few  of  the  more  advanced 
classes  in  the  ordinary  studies,  she  taught  the 
higher  mathematics,  and  Latin  and  Greek,  main- 
taining her  habit  of  making  special  preparation 
for  each  recitation.  She  handled  these  classes 
also  with  remarkable  thoroughness  and  success. 
I  cannot  speak  from  personal  knowledge  of  the 
later  teachers  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  this  insti- 
tution ;  but,  during  the  time  she  was  here,  no 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  405 

one  of  her  associates  was   her  superior  in  those 
studies. 

As  the  earlier  teachers  were  called  away  to 
other  fields  of  duty,  their  places  were  supplied 
by  selection  from  those  who  had  been  "  Eclectic  " 
students;  and  thus  Miss  Booth  found  herself 
associated  with  teachers  whose  culture  she  had 
guided,  and  who  were  attached  to  her  by  the 
strongest  ties  of  friendship.  I  know  how  apt  we 
are  to  exaggerate  the  merits  of  those  we  love; 
but,  making  due  allowance  for  this  tendency,  as 
I  look  back  upon  the  little  circle  of  teachers  who 
labored  here,  under  the  leadership  of  our  hon- 
ored and  venerable  friend  Mr.  Hayden,  during 
the  first  six  years  of  the  Eclectic,  and  upon  the 
younger  group,  associated  with  me  from  1856 
until  the  breaking-out  of  the  war,  I  think  I 
wrong  no  one  of  them  by  saying,  that  for  gener- 
ous friendship,  and  united,  earnest  work,  I  have 
never  seen,  and  never  expect  to  see,  their  like 
again.  Enough  new  members  were  added  to  the 
corps  of  teachers  from  year  to  year  to  keep  alive 
the  freshness  of  young  enthusiasm  ;  and  yet 
enough  experience  and  maturity  of  judgment 
was  left  to  hold  the  school  in  a  steady  course  of 
prosperity. 


406      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD   AND  EDUCATION. 

The  influence  of  Miss  Booth,  especially  during 
the  later  period  to  which  I  have  referred,  was  not 
surpassed  by  any  member  of  that  circle.  A 
majority  of  her  associates  had  been  her  stu- 
dents,—  the  children  of  her  intellect  and  heart. 
She  had  watched  their  growth  with  something 
akin  to  maternal  pride ;  and  she  welcomed  them 
to  that  circle  with  no  touch  of  envy,  but  with 
most  generous  and  helpful  friendship.  I  am  sure 
that  Rhodes,  Everest,  Atwater,  Hinsdale,  Miss 
Wilson,  and  the  rest  can  never  forget  that  golden 
age  of  our  lives ;  and  all  will  agree  with  me,  that 
one  light  at  least  shone  always  steady  and  clear, 
—  the  light  that  beamed  upon  us  from  the  mind 
and  heart  of  Almeda  A.  Booth. 

The  few  spare  hours  which  the  school-work  left 
us  were  devoted  to  such  pursuits  as  each  pre- 
ferred ;  but  much  study  was  done  in  common. 
I  can  name  twenty  or  thirty  books  which  will 
forever  be  doubly  precious  to  me,  because  they 
were  read  and  discussed  in  company  with  her. 
I  can  still  read,  between  the  lines,  the  memories 
of  her  first  impression  of  the  page,  and  her  judg- 
ment of  its  merits.  She  was  always  ready  to  aid 
any  friend  with  her  best  efforts.  When  I  was  in 
the  hurry  of  preparing  for  a  debate  with  Mr. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  407 

Denton  in  1858,  she  read  not  less  than  eight  or 
ten  volumes,  and  made  admirable  notes  for  me, 
on  those  points  which  related  to  the  topics  of 
discussion.  In  the  autumn  of  1859,  she  read  a 
large  portion  of  Blacksione's  "  Commentaries,"  and 
enjoyed,  with  keenest  relish,  the  strength  of  the 
author's  thought,  and  the  beauty  of  his  style. 
From  the  rich  stores  of  her  knowledge,  she  gave 
with  unselfish  generosity.  The  foremost  students 
had  no  mannish  pride  that  made  them  hesitate  to 
ask  her  assistance  and  counsel.  In  preparing 
their  orations  and  debates,  they  eagerly  sought 
her  suggestions  and  criticisms.  Everywhere  the 
literary  life  of  Hiram  bore  abundant  marks  of 
her  guiding  hand. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  John  Stuart  Mill  has 
exaggerated  the  extent  to  which  his  own  mind 
and  works  were  influenced  by  Harriet  Mill.  I 
should  reject  his  opinion  on  that  subject  as  a 
delusion,  did  I  not  know,  from  my  own  experi- 
ence as  well  as  that  of  hundreds  of  Hiram  stu- 
dents, how  great  a  power  Miss  Booth  exercised 
over  the  culture  and  opinions  of  her  friends. 

From  what  I  have  said  of  her  influence  over 
young  men,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  she  was 
wanting  in  sympathy  or  influence  with  her  own 


408      PBESIDENT   GARFIELD  AND  EDUCATION. 

sex.  It  is  true,  that  giddy  and  superficial  women, 
who  care  more  for  the  adornment  of  their  bodies 
than  for  the  enlightenment  of  their  minds,  were 
not  strongly  attracted  to  Miss  Booth ;  but  by  all 
the  better  class  of  thoughtful  and  earnest  women 
she  was  loved  with  ardent  and  enthusiastic  devo- 
tion. 

The  war  for  the  Union,  which  broke  up  so  many 
happy  circles,  and  changed  the  plans  of  so  many 
lives,  wrought  great  changes  in  Hiram,  and  swept 
into  the  fiery  current  a  hundred  of  our  best  stu- 
dents. Their  fortunes  were  watched  with  patri- 
otic pride  and  affection  by  those  who  remained  to 
sustain  the  institution,  and  promote  its  success. 
During  those  trying  years,  Miss  Booth  stood  at 
her  post  of  duty,  always  loyally  faithful  to  her 
associates,  and  more  indispensable  to  the  institu- 
tion than  ever.  In  one  of  her  letters  to  me,  writ- 
ten August,  1861,  she  said,  — 

"  In  all  my  early  forecastings  of  your  future,  and  that  of 
the  noble  men  who  went  with  you,  I  never  counted  upon 
the  possibility  of  war ;  and  I  hardly  know  how  to  adjust  my 
mind  to  its  dreadful  realities.  Ah,  me !  to  think  what  may 
come !  We  shall  follow  you  all  with  our  hearts,  and  do  our 
best  to  keep  the  light  of  the  Eclectic  burning.  The  task 
is  a  great  one ;  but  at  a  time  of  such  anxiety  hard  work  is 
a  blessing,  and  just  now  our  hands  are  very  full  of  it." 


i 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  409 

Through  the  darkness  of  the  war,  and  into  the 
light  of  victory  and  peace,  she  worked  on,  reaping 
each  year  a  larger  and  richer  harvest  of  results. 

About  the  end  of  1865,  a  new  and  sacred  duty 
called  her  to  leave  the  field  in  which  for  nearly 
fifteen  years  she  had  achieved  such  remarkable 
success.  Her  parents  had  become  old  and  feeble, 
and  her  father  had  so  far  failed  in  body  and  mind 
as  to  need  those  tender  personal  services  which 
none  but  she  could  render.  Without  a  murmur, 
she  closed  the  long  period  of  her  brilliant  career  at 
Hiram ;  and,  leaving  a  circle  of  which  she  was  the 
chief  ornament,  she  removed  with  her  parents  to 
Cuyahoga  Falls,  established  a  quiet  and  unpre- 
tending home,  and  began  a  new  life  of  uncom- 
plaining self-sacrifice.  During  the  first  year  of 
her  residence  there,  she  was  manager  and  sole 
servant  of  her  household,  and  with  the  tenderest 
filial  piety  devoted  herself  wholly  to  the  care  of 
her  parents.  In  the  autumn  of  1866,  her  father's 
health  had  so  far  recovered,  that,  in  addition  to 
her  home  cares,  she  accepted  the  place  of  Assist- 
ant Principal  in  the  Union  Schools  at  Cuyahoga 
Falls,  then  under  the  superintendence  of  V.  P. 
Kline,  one  of  her  Hiram  students,  and  a  cherished 
friend.  There  she  continued  to  teach  four  years, 


410      PKESIDENT   GAKFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

when  she  was  chosen  as  Superintendent  of  all  the 
schools  of  the  village,  and  for  three  years  dis- 
charged the  duties  of  that  position  with  her  wonted 
success. 

Her  life  at  Cuyahoga  Falls  exhibited  all  her 
peculiar  powers,  and  attracted  the  same  enthusi- 
astic love  which  she  had  enjoyed  among  the  stu- 
dents at  Hiram.  But  her  long  and  arduous  work 
had  begun  to  make  inroads  upon  her  health ;  and, 
withdrawing  from  the  superintendency  of  the 
schools,  she  gave  private  lessons  to  select  classes 
in  French  and  German  and  other  advanced  studies 
during  the  two  succeeding  years.  At  the  close  of 
1874,  her  health  was  prostrated  by  a  dangerous 
and  painful  disease  which  required  the  most 
skilful  professional  treatment.  Few,  even  of  her 
most  intimate  friends,  knew  through  what  a  terri- 
ble ordeal  of  bodily  suffering  she  passed  the  last 
year  of  her  life.  In  the  autumn  of  1875,  she  de- 
termined to  remove  to  Cleveland,  where  she  coiild 
receive  the  more  constant  attention  of  eminent 
physicians. 

Just  before  leaving  Ohio,  in  October  last,  I 
called  on  her  in  Cleveland,  where  she  was  spend- 
ing a  week  near  her  physicians,  and  making  ar- 
rangements for  a  change  of  residence.  She  showed 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  411 

no  signs  of  depression  of  spirits.  Patient  and 
cheerful,  she  looked  forward  to  the  hope  of  re- 
gaining her  health,  and  finding  a  home  near  the 
friends  of  her  earlier  life.  I  expressed  the  desire 
that  she  might  yet  do  me  the  very  great  favor  to 
train  my  boys  for  college.  The  tears  filled  her 
eyes  as  she  said,  "  I  should  dearly  love  to  do  that ; 
it  would  seem  like  living  our  own  lives  over 
again ;  "  and  then,  pausing  as  if  in  doubt  whether 
it  were  not  self-praise,  she  added,  "  I  believe  I  can 
teach  the  classics  better  than  I  could  when  I  was 
in  Hiram."  She  spoke  of  her  friends  in  that 
warm  and  earnest  way  so  peculiarly  her  own  ;  and 
I  bade  her  good-by  with  the  promise,  and  in  the 
confident  hope,  that  I  would  meet  her  in  the  Cen- 
tennial summer,  and  enjoy  again  the  blessings  of 
that  friendship  which  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century  was  one  of  the  noblest  and  richest  gifts 
that  Heaven  has  vouchsafed  to  me.  But  it  was 
ordered  otherwise  by  a  wisdom  higher  than  ours. 
She  removed  to  Cleveland  on  the  10th  of  Novem- 
ber last,  with  health  apparently  improving.  She 
set  in  pleasant  order  her  new  home,  in  the  midst 
of  a  little  colony  of  her  dear  old  friends.  Jennie 
Eggleston  was  living  with  her ;  Harry  Rhodes  and 
his  wife,  Henry  James,  and  Virgil  Kline,  all  fa- 


412      PKESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

miliar  Hiram  names,  were  her  neighbors ;  and  she 
and  they  looked  forward  to  a  pleasant  winter,  to 
be  made  brighter  by  frequent  renewals  of  old 
•  memories  ;  and  the  re-unions  had  begun. 

On  the  8th  of  December  she  and  Miss  Eggle- 
ston  spent  the  evening  at  Kline's,  where  they 
read  and  visited  several  hours.  Almeda  read 
aloud  Emerson's  essay  on  "  Compensation,"  and 
appeared  to  be  all  herself  again.  She  seemed  so 
bright  and  so  well  that  her  friends  thought  a  long 
life  of  health  and  happiness  was  before  her.  But 
that  re-union  was  her  last.  Let  me  repeat  the  last 
half-page  she  ever  read :  — 

"  The  compensations  of  calamity  are  made  apparent  to 
the  understanding  also  after  long  intervals  of  time.  A  fever, 
a  mutilation,  a  cruel  disappointment,  a  loss  of  wealth,  a  loss 
of  friends,  seems  at  the  moment  unpaid  loss  and  unpayable. 
But  the  sure  years  reveal  the  deep  remedial  force  that  un- 
derlies all  facts.  The  death  of  a  dear  friend,  wife,  brother, 
lover,  -which  seemed  nothing  but  privation,  somewhat  later 
assumes  the  aspect  of  a  guide  or  genius ;  for  it  commonly 
operates  revolutions  in  our  way  of  life,  terminates  an  epoch 
of  infancy  or  of  youth  which  was  waiting  to  be  closed, 
breaks  up  a  wonted  occupation,  or  a  household,  or  a  style  of 
living,  and  allows  the  formation  of  new  ones  more  friendly 
to  the  growth  of  character.  It  permits  or  constrains  the 
formation  of  new  acquaintances,  and  the  reception  of  new 


ALMEDA   A.   BOOTH.  413 

influences,  that  prove  of  the  first  importance  to  the  next 
years ;  and  the  man  or  woman  who  would  have  remained  a 
sunny  garden-flower,  with  no  room  for  its  roots,  and  too 
much  sunshine  for  its  head,  by  the  falling  of  the  walls  and 
the  neglect  of  the  gardener,  is  made  the  banian  of  the  forest, 
yielding  shade  and  fruit  to  wide  neighborhoods  of  men." 

I  cannot  doubt  that  she  felt  the  truth  of  these 
words ;  for  they  portray  with  singular  fidelity  the 
course  of  her  own  life.  Late  that  night  she  was 
taken  ill ;  and  after  a  week  of  great  suffering, 
borne  with  uncomplaining  fortitude,  she  died  on 
the  morning  of  Dec.  15,  1875. 

One  of  her  friends,  who  stood  by  her  at  the 
closing  scene,  wrote  me  :  — 

"  She  passed  quietly  away.  Her  face  was  so  peaceful  in 
death,  no  trace  of  pain  upon  it.  There  she  lay  before  us,  as 
though,  weary  with  labor,  she  had  fallen  asleep.  All  that 
loving  hands  could  do  for  her  we  did.  We  wreathed  her 
coffin  with  flowers,  and  bore  her  remains  to  Cuyahoga  Falls, 
where  a  mournful  and  tearful  audience  awaited  us  at  the 
church.  In  the  hearts  of  her  last  pupils,  as  in  the  hearts  of 
her  earlier  ones,  there  was  deepest  grief.  All  felt,  as  we 
stood  by  her  grave,  that  no  nobler,  grander,  purer  spirit  ever 
dwelt  on  the  earth,  or  went  up  to  heaven." 

Such  is  the  story  of  her  life,  all  too  poorly  told. 
I  have  attempted  to  trace  her  long  and  toilful 
progress  through  its  several  stages.  We  have  seen. 


414      PEESIDENT  GAKFIELD  AND   EDUCATION. 

that,  in  fact,  she  lived  three  lives  in  one,  —  first, 
the  life  of  early  struggle  promising  to  culminate 
in  the  happy  contentment  of  a  home,  with  the 
companionship  and  love  of  a  husband ;  second,  the 
larger  life,  born  of  a  great  sorrow,  but  leading  her 
along  a  rugged  path  to  the  calm  heights  of  a 
broad  and  beautiful  culture,  —  a  life  devoted  to 
great  and  successful  achievements,  as  one  of  the 
very  foremost  teachers  of  her  time ;  and,  third,  a 
life  of  heroic  and  unselfish  devotion  to  a  sacred 
filial  duty,  with  added  years  of  noble  and  beauti- 
ful work  as  a  teacher. 

It  remains  to  inquire  what  she  has  left  to  us  as 
a  legacy  and  a  lesson.  Her  life  was  so  largely 
and  so  inseparably  a  part  of  our  own,  that  it  is 
not  easy  for  any  of  us,  least  of  all  for  me,  to  take 
a  sufficiently  distant  stand-point  from  which  to 
measure  its  proportions. 

We  shall  never  forget  her  sturdy,  well-formed 
figure ;  her  head  that  would  have  appeared  colos- 
sal but  for  its  symmetry  of  proportions;  the 
strongly  marked  features  of  her  plain,  rugged  face, 
not  moulded  according  to  the  artist's  lines  of 
beauty,  but  so  lighted  up  with  intelligence  and 
kindliness  as  to  appear  positively  beautiful  to 
those  who  knew  her  well. 


ALMEDA   A.   BOOTH.  415 

The  basis  of  her  character,  the  controlling  force 
which  developed  and  formed  it,  was  strength,  — 
extraordinary  intellectual  power.  Blessed  with  a 
vigorous  constitution  and  robust  bodily  health, 
her  capacity  for  close,  continuous,  and  effective 
mental  work  was  remarkable.  No  stronger  illus- 
tration is  possible  than  the  fact,  already  exhibited, 
that  she  accomplished,  in  four  years,  the  ordinary 
work  of  ten. 

It  is  hardly  possible  for  one  person  to  know  the 
quality  and  strength  of  another's  mind  more  thor- 
oughly than  I  knew  hers.  From  long  association 
in  her  studies,  and  comparing  her  with  all  the 
students  I  have  known,  here  and  elsewhere,  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  say,  that  I  have  never  known  one 
who  grasped  with  greater  power,  and  handled 
with  more  ease  and  thoroughness,  all  the  studies 
of  the  college  course.  I  doubt  if  in  all  these 
respects  I  have  ever  known  one  who  was  her 
equal.  She  caught  an  author's  meaning  with 
remarkable  quickness  and  clearness ;  and,  master- 
ing the  difficulties  of  construction,  she  detected, 
with  almost  unerring  certainty,  the  most  delicate 
shades  of  thought. 

She  abhorred  all  shams  in  scholarship,  and 
would  be  content  with  nothing  short  of  the  whole 


416      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD    AND   EDUCATION. 

meaning.  When  crowded  with  work,  it  was  not 
unusual  for  her  to  sit'by  her  lamp,  unconscious  of 
the  hours,  till  far  past  midnight. 

Her  powers  were  well  balanced.  When  I  first 
knew  her,  it  was  supposed  that  her  mind  was 
specially  adapted  to  mathematical  study.  A  little 
later,  it  was  thought  she  had  found  her  fittest 
work  in  the  field  of  the  natural  sciences ;  later 
still,  one  would  have  said  that  she  had  found  her 
highest  possibilities  in  the  languages ;  and  Pro- 
fessor Monroe  tells  us  with  what  ease  she  fathomed 
the  depths  of  so  severe  an  argument  as  Butler's 
"  Analogy." 

Her  mind  was  many-sided,  strong,  compact, 
symmetrical.  It  was  this  symmetry  and  balance 
of  qualities  that  gave  her  such  admirable  judg- 
ment, and  enabled  her  to  concentrate  all  her 
powers  upon  any  work  she  attempted. 

To  this  general  statement  concerning  her  facul- 
ties there  was,  however,  one  marked  exception. 
While  she  enjoyed,  and  in  some  degree  appre- 
ciated, the  harmonies  of  music,  she  was  almost 
wholly  deficient  in  the  faculty  of  musical  expres- 
sion. After  her  return  from  college,  she  deter- 
mined to  ascertain  by  actual  test  to  what  extent, 
if  at  all,  this  defect  could  be  overcome.  With  a 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  417 

patience  and  courage  I  have  never  seen  equalled 
in  such  a  case,  she  persisted  for  six  months  in  the 
attempt  to  master  the  technical  mysteries  of  in- 
strumental music,  and  even  attempted  one  vocal 
piece.  But  she  found  that  the  struggle  was  nearly 
fruitless :  the  music  in  -her  soul  would  not  come 
forth  at  her  bidding.  A  few  of  her  friends'  will 
remember,  that,  for  many  years,  to  mention  "  The 
Suwanee  River "  was  the  signal  for  not  a  little 
good-natured  merriment  at  her  expense,  and  a 
reminder  of  her  heroic  attempt  at  vocal  and  in- 
strumental music. 

The  tone  of  her  mind  was  habitually  logical 
and  serious,  not  specially  inclined  to  what  is  tech- 
nically known  as  wit ;  but  she  had  the  heartiest 
appreciation  of  genuine  humor,  such  as  glows  on 
the  pages  of  Cervantes  and  Dickens.  Clifton 
Bennett  and  Levi  Brown  will  never  forget  how 
keenly  she  enjoyed  the  quaint  drollery  with  which 
they  once  presented,  at  a  public  lyceum,  a  scene 
from  "  Don  Quixote ; "  and  I  am  sure  there  are 
three  persons  here  to-day  who  will  never  forget 
how  nearly  she  was  once  suffocated  with  laughter 
over  a  mock-presentation  speech  by  Harry  Rhodes. 

Though  possessed  of  very  great  intellectual 
powers,  or,  as  the  arrogance  of  our  sex  accustoms 


418      PRESIDENT  GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

us  to  say,  "  having  a  mind  of  masculine  strength," 
it  was  not  at  all  masculine  in  the  opprobrious 
sense  in  which  that  term  is  frequently  applied  to 
women.  She  was  a  most  womanly  woman,  with 
a  spirit  of  gentle  and  childlike  sweetness,  with 
no  self-consciousness  of  superiority,  and  not  the 
least  trace  of  arrogance. 

I  take  pleasure  in  re-enforcing  my  own  views 
of  the  combined  strength  and  gentleness  of  her 
character,  by  quoting  the  following  letter  from 
the  Hon.  James  Monroe,  who  was  one  of  her 
esteemed  professors  at  Oberlin :  — 

"  HOUSE  OP  REPRESENTATIVES,  WASHINGTON,  D.C. 
"May  28, 1876. 

"  MY  DEAR  GENERAL,  —  I  learn  that  you  are  preparing 
an  address  upon  the  life  and  character  of  Miss  Almeda  A. 
Booth ;  and  I  cannot  resist  the  impulse  to  write  you  a  note 
upon  this  interesting  subject,  thus  contributing  my  rill  of 
memories  to  your  broader  and  deeper  current. 

"  It  is  among  the  gratifying  recollections  of  my  life  that 
Miss  Booth  was  a  pupil  of  mine  for  a  considerable  period  of 
time,  in  connection  with  a  college  class  at  Oberlin.  Soon 
after  I  began  to  observe  the  habit  of  her  mind,  I  discovered 
that  she  was  a  remarkable  woman.  What  at  first  struck  my 
attention  was  the  union  in  her  character,  in  a  degree  very 
uncommon,  of  masculine  intellectual  strength  and  perfect 
womanly  gentleness. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  419 

"  Her  intellectual  powers  were  such  as  would  at  once  have 
attracted  attention  in  any  undergraduate  in  any  college. 
She  had  not  only  great  force,  but  force  which  worked  with 
evident  ease,  without  friction  and  without  conscious  effort. 
I  shall  never  forget  her  recitations  in  Butler's  'Analogy.' 
Often  when  one  member  in  the  class  after  another  had  failed 
rightly  to  interpret  some  difficult  paragraph,  Miss  Booth, 
when  called  upon,  would  at  once,  without  hesitation,  with- 
out self -consciousness,  and  with  no  idea  whatever  of  being 
superior  to  others,  set  the  passage  in  the  truest  and  clearest 
light,  both  as  to  its  intrinsic  meaning  and  its  relation  to  the 
context.  She  used  to  recite  the  'Analogy'  as  if  she  had 
written  it.  I  remember  the  pleased  expression  of  relief 
which  passed  over  the  faces  of  her  classmates  when  she 
extricated  them  from  some  difficulty.  They  all  esteemed 
and  praised  her,  and  her  superiority  made  no  one  envi- 
ous. 

"Her  gentleness  of  character  was  as  remarkable  as  her 
strength  of  intellect.  She  seemed  to  think  well  of  all  her 
acquaintances,  and  never,  to  my  knowledge,  thought  she  had 
a  grievance.  She  was  noticeably  kind  and  helpful  to  those 
who  needed  attention,  and  loved  her  fellow-creatures  with 
the  same  love  which  led  Christ  to  die  for  them.  On  the 
whole,  she  was  as  good  an  example  of  combined  '  sweetness 
and  light '  as  I  have  met  with. 

"  After  she  left  Oberlin  you  knew  much  more  of  her  than 
I  did.  I  often  regretted  that  I  could  not  continue  my  ac- 
quaintance with  her.  But  I  frequently  heard  of  her  great 
usefulness,  and  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  she  was  held 
wherever  she  resided.  She  was  a  large,  strong,  loving  soul ; 


420      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

and  any  community  which  was  favored  with  her  presence 
must  have  been  the  better  for  it. 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

"JAMES  MONROE." 

Though  possessing  these  great  powers,  she  was 
not  unmindful  of  those  elegant  accomplishments, 
the  love  of  which  seems  native  to  the  mind  of 
woman. 

In  her  earlier  years  she  was  sometimes  criti- 
cised as  caring  too  little  for  the  graces  of  dress 
and  manner;  and  there  was  some  justice  in  the 
criticism.  The  possession  of  great  powers,  no 
doubt,  carries  with  it  a  contempt  for  mere  exter- 
nal show.  In  her  early  life  Miss  Booth  dressed 
neatly,  though  with  the  utmost  plainness,  and 
applied  herself  to  the  work  of  gaining  the  more 
enduring  ornaments  of  mind  and  heart.  In  her 
first  years  at  Hiram  she  had  devoted  all  her 
powers  to  teaching  and  mastering  the  difficulties 
of  the  higher  studies,  and  had  given  but  little 
time  to  what  are  called  the  more  elegant  accom- 
plishments. But  she  was  not  deficient  in  appre- 
ciation of  all  that  really  adorns  and  beautifies  a 
thorough  culture.  After  her  return  from  Oberlin 
she  paid  more  attention  to  the  "mint,  anise,  an,d 
cummin"  of  life.  During  the  last  fifteen  y  '.an. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  421 

of  her  life,  few  ladies  dressed  with  more  severe  or 
elegant  taste.  As  a  means  of  personal  culture, 
she  read  the  history  of  art,  devoted  much  time  to 
drawing  and  painting,  and  acquired  considerable 
skill  with  the  pencil  and  brush. 

She  did  not  enjoy  miscellaneous  society.  Great 
crowds  were  her  abhorrence.  But  in  a  small 
circle  of  congenial  friends  she  was  a  delighted 
and  a  delightful  companion. 

Her  religious  character  affords  an  additional 
illustration  of  her  remarkable  combination  of 
strength  and  gentleness.  At  an  early  age  she 
became  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  continued  in  faithful  and  consistent 
relations  with  that  organization  until  she  united 
with  the  Disciples,  soon  after  she  came  to  Hiram. 

Her  firmness  was  severely  tested  by  the  reli- 
gious changes  which  occurred  in  her  own  home. 
Her  father's  enthusiastic  temperament  led  him  to 
study  any  new  phases  of  religious  opinion,  with 
a  somewhat  impressible  credulity.  The  Mormon 
movement  of  1830-32  swept  him,  for  a  time,  into 
its  turbulent  current ;  and,  ten  or  fifteen  years 
later,  he  was  interested  in  the  socialistic  theories 
of  the  Shakers,  with  whom,  as  I  understand,  he 
united  for  a  short  time.  Later  still,  he  paid  much 


422      PRESIDENT   GAEFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

attention  to  the  Spiritualistic  philosophy.  But 
while  Miss  Booth  thoroughly  respected  the  sin- 
cerity of  her  father's  opinions,  and  from  them 
doubtless  became  wisely  tolerant  and  liberal  in 
her  opinions,  she  maintained  firmly,  but  without 
bigotry,  her  faith  in  God  and  in  the  life  to  come. 
She  cared  little  for  mere  differences  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal form,  and  abhorred  every  species  of  ostenta- 
tious and  noisy  piety :  but  her  life  was  full  of  the 
calmness  and  beauty  of  religion ;  her  heart  was 
filled  with  the  charity  that  "  suffereth  long,  and  is 
kind,"  and,  still  greater,  that  "thinketh  no  evil." 
At  the  memorial  meeting  held  here  soon  after  her 
death,  the  very  just  and  striking  statement  was 
made  by  one  who  had  known  her  from  child- 
hood, that  he  "had  never  heard  her  speak  evil  of 
any  human  being." 

I  venture  to  assert,  that  in  native  powers  of 
mind,  in  thoroughness  and  breadth  of  scholarship, 
in  womanly  sweetness  of  spirit,  and  in  the  quan- 
tity and  quality  of  effective,  unselfish  work  done, 
she  has  not  been  excelled  by  any  American 
woman.  What  she  accomplished  with  her  great 
powers,  thoroughly  trained  and  subordinated  to 
the  principles  of  a  Christian  life,  has  been  briefly 
stated. 


ALMEDA  A.   BOOTH.  423 

She  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  make  war  upon 
society  in  order  to  capture  a  field  for  the  exercise 
of  her  great  qualities.  Though  urging  upon 
women  the  necessity  of  the  largest  and  most 
thorough  culture,  and  demanding  for  them  the 
amplest  means  for  acquiring  it,  she  did  not  waste 
her  years  in  bewailing  the  subjection  of  her  sex, 
but  employed  them  in  making  herself  a  great  and 
beneficent  power.  She  did  far  more  to  honor  and 
exalt  woman's  place  in  society  than  the  thousands 
of  her  contemporaries  who  struggle  more  earnest- 
ly for  the  barren  sceptre  of  power  than  for  fitness 
to  wield  it. 

She  might  have  adorned  the  highest  walks  of 
literature,  and  doubtless  might  thus  have  won  a 
noisy  fame.  But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  in 
any  other  pursuit  she  could  have  conferred  greater 
or  more  lasting  benefits  upon  her  fellow-creatures, 
than  by  the  life  she  so  faithfully  and  successfully 
devoted  to  the  training  and  culture  of  youth. 
With  no  greed  of  power  or  of  gain,  she  found  her 
chief  reward  in  blessing  others. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  man  or  woman,  who,  at 
fifty-one  years  of  age,  had  done  more  or  better 
work.  I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  precisely 
how  long  she  taught  before  she  came  to  Hiram ; 


424      PRESIDENT  GAEFIELD  AND   EDUCATION. 

but  it  was  certainly  not  less  than  fifteen  terms. 
She  taught  forty -two  terms  here,  twenty-one  terms 
in  the  Union  School  at  Cuyahoga  Falls,  and, 
finally,  two  years  in  private  classes ;  in  all,  nearly 
twenty-eight  years  of  faithful  and  most  successful 
teaching,  to  which  she  devoted  the  wealth  of  her 
great  faculties  and  admirable  scholarship. 

How  rich  and  how  full  was  the  measure  of 
gratitude  poured  out  to  her,  from  many  thousands 
of  loving  hearts  !  And  to-day,  from  every  station 
in  life,  and  from  every  quarter  of  our  country,  are 
heard  the  voices  of  those  who  rise  up  to  call  her 
blessed,  and  to  pay  their  tearful  tribute  of  grati- 
tude to  her  memory. 

On  my  own  behalf,  I  take  this  occasion  to  say, 
that  for  her  generous  and  powerful  aid,  so  often 
and  so  efficiently  rendered,  for  her  quick  and 
never-failing  sympathy,  and  for  her  intelligent, 
unselfish,  and  unswerving  friendship,  I  owe  her  a 
debt  of  gratitude  and  affection,  for  the  payment 
of  which  the  longest  term  of  life  would  have  been 
too  short. 

To  this  institution  she  has  left  the  honorable 
record  of  a  long  and  faithful  service,  and  the  rich 
legacy  of  a  pure  and  noble  life.  I  have  shown 
that  she  lived  three  lives.  One  of  these,  the  sec- 


ALMEDA   A.   BOOTH.  425 

ond,  in  all  its  richness  and  fulness,  she  gave  to 
Hiram.  More  than  half  of  all  her  teaching  was 
done  here,  where  she  taught  much  longer  than 
any  other  person  has  taught ;  and  no  one  has  done 
work  of  better  quality. 

She  has  here  reared  a  monument  which  the 
envious  years  cannot  wholly  destroy.  As  long  as 
the  love  of  learning  shall  here  survive ;  as  long  as 
the  light  of  this  college  shall  be  kept  burning ;  as 
long  as  there  are  hearts  to  hold  and  cherish  the 
memory  of  its  past;  as  long  as  high  qualities  of 
mind  and  heart  are  honored  and  loved  among  men 
and  women, — so  long  will  the  name  of  Almeda  A. 
Booth  be  here  remembered,  and  honored,  and 
loved. 

All  who  knew  her  at  any  period  of  her  career 
will  carry  her  memory  as  a  perpetual  and  precious 
possession.  With  the  changing  of  a  single  word, 
we  may  say  of  our  friend  what  the  Poet  Laure- 
ate of  England  said  of  "  Isabel : "  — 

"  The  intuitive  decision  of  a  bright 
And  thorough-edged  intellect  to  part 
Error  from  crime ;  a  prudence  to  withhold ; 
The  laws  of  friendship  charactered  in  gold 
Upon  the  blanched  tablets  of  her  heart ; 
A  love  still  burning  upward,  giving  light 


426      PRESIDENT   GARFIELD   AND   EDUCATION. 

To  read  those  laws ;  .  .  . 

A  courage  to  endure  and  to  obey : 

A  hate  of  gossip  parlance  and  of  sway; 

....  the  world  hath  not  another 

(Though  all  her  fairest  forms  are  types  of  thee, 

And  thou  of  God  in  thy  great  charity) 

Of  such  a  finished  chastened  purity." 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


THE  ARMY  POST  SCHOOLS. 

SINCE  the  account  of  these  schools  given  in  the 
"Introduction  to  Speeches"1  was  written,  and 
even  put  in  type,  I  have  received  a  mass  of  valuable 
information  concerning  them,  some  parts  of  which  will 
be  of  interest  here. 

The  law  of  1866  remained  a  dead  letter  until  1875. 
Chaplain  George  G.  Mullins,  of  the  Twenty-fifth  In- 
fantry, discovered  the  existence  of  the  law,  and  began 
to  make  demands  upon  his  colonel  and  the  War  De- 
partment that  its  terms  and  provisions  be  carried  out." 
Mullins's  work  and  reports,  and  a  report  made  by  Gen. 
N.  H.  Davis  of  his  observations  in  a  tour  of  inspection 
in  the  Department  of  Texas,  led  to  the  organization 
of  the  Board  that  framed  the  rules  and  regulations  of 
General  Order  No.  24,  May  18, 1878.  These  rules  form 

1  Pp.  169-173. 

'  Sect.  1,124  of  the  Revised  Statutes  mode  it  the  duty  of  chaplains  of 
regiments  of  colored  troops  and  of  post  chaplains  to  instruct  the  enlisted 
men  in  tbe  common  English  branches  of  education. 

429 


430  APPENDIX. 

the  basis  of  the  post-schools.  Rules  1,  2,  3,  and  4  pro- 
vide for  the  accumulation  and  management  of  a  post 
fund.  This  fund  comes  from  two  sources :  first,  the 
post-trader  at  a  post  is  required  to  pay  for  his  privilege, 
"  not  exceeding  ten  cents  a  month  for  every  officer 
and  enlisted  soldier  serving  at  the  post ;  "  second,  the 
troops,  when  practicable,  are  required  to  bake  their 
own  bread,  and  the  difference  between  bread  and  flour, 
which  is  thirty-three  and  one-third  per  cent  in  favor  of 
flour,  goes  to  the  post  fund.  Rule  7  names  the  objects 
to  which  the  fund  thus  accumulated  shall  be  devoted. 
In  their  order  they  are :  1.  Expenses  of  bake-house: 
2.  Garden  seeds  and  utensils ;  3.  Post  schools ;  4. 
Post  library  and  reading-room ;  5.  Gymnasium ;  6. 
Chapel ;  7.  Fruit  and  shade  trees ;  8.  Fruit-bearing 
vines  and  bushes ;  9.  Printing-press.  Order  No.  24 
contains  minute  regulations,  covering  the  whole  ground 
of  education  in  the  army. 

Chaplain  Mullins  was  duly  appointed  assistant  to 
General  McCook,  the  inspector,  and  he  now  holds  the 
office  of  Supervisor  of  Education  in  the  Army.  He  is 
enthusiastically  devoted  to  the  work,  and  has  already 
done  much,  through  the  means  appointed  by  the  law,  to 
foster  the  intelligence  and  morality  of  the  soldiers. 
In  an  able  article  entitled  "Education  in  the  Army," 
contributed  to  the  "United  Service"  magazine  for 
April,  1880,  the  chaplain  presents  the  argument  for 
the  schools  with  great  force. 


APPENDIX.  431 

The  majority  of  the  twenty-five  thousand  enlisted^ 
men  in  the  army  are  native-born  citizens,  and  not  for- 
eigners. They  are  not  hardened  wretches,  but  hopeful 
and  adventurous  young  men,  generally  under  thirty 
years  of  age,  the  mass  of  whom  are  illiterate,  —  the 
larger  part  not  being  able  properly  to  sign  the  muster- 
rolls.  Many  of  the  non-commissioned  officers  cannot  / 
repeat  the  multiplication-table,  know  nothing  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  country,  cannot  study  the  "  Tactics,"  and 
are  wholly  unable  to  write,  or  to  read  written  orders. 
He  points  out  the  inevitable  tendencies  of  such  igno- 
rance under  the  well-known  conditions  of  army-life,  —  " 
drunkenness,  idleness,  shirking  duty,  want  of  self-re- 
spect, and  other  vices  and  immoralities.  The  tendency  - 
of  the  schools  to  correct  these  evils,  in  great  degree,  is 
stated,  and  well  supported  by  facts.  Then  he  speaks 
of  the  multitude  of  dependent  children  in  the  army,  or 
in  some  way  belonging  to  it,  —  children  of  officers,  en- 
listed men,  and  employees,  besides  the  children  of  set- 
tlers around  the  posts.  He  supposes  these  to  be  three 
or  four  thousand  in  number.  "The  majority  of  these 
precious  impedimenta  are  west  of  the  Mississippi,  at  the 
posts  upon  the  wild  frontier,  far  removed  from  schools, 
churches,  and  the  thousand  refining  influences  of  civil 
life.  To  provide  teachers,  books,  and  papers  for  them, 
to  save  them  from  heathenish  darkness,  to  train  them 
up  for  lives  of  virtue  and  usefulness,  ought  surely  to 


432  APPENDIX. 

be  counted  a  matter  of  sufficient  gravity  to  challenge 
the  attention  of  the  wise  legislators  who  are  doing  so 
very  much  in  the  interest  of  national  education."  He 
then  urges  the  strong  claim  of  the  common  soldier  and 
his  child  for  an  education,  and  remarks  upon  the  fact, 
that  until  the  post-schools  were  organized  nothing 
whatever  was  done  for  either. 

From  the  annual  report  of  the  Supervisor  of  Educa- 
tion in  the  Army,  dated  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  Nov.  1,  1881, 
it  appears  that  the  approximate  number  of  enlisted 
men  in  daily  attendance  upon  the  reading-rooms  for 
the  year  is  4,800.  The  average  attendance  upon  the 
j  schools  has  been, — enlisted  men,  912;  children  of 
enlisted  men,  850  ;  children  of  officers,  224  ;  children 
of  civilians,  316  :  total  average  number,  2,302.  Thus 
far  there  have  been  built  at  the  various  military  posts 
fifty-two  chapels,  schools,  and  reading-rooms,  at  a  total 
cost  of  $60,757.  Large  contributions  of  reading 
matter  —  Bibles,  Testaments,  song- books,  periodicals, 
tracts,  Sunday-school  books,  and  miscellaneous  works — 
have  been  received  through  the  year  from  various 
sources,  as  the  publication  societies  and  private  indi- 
viduals. 

This  fuller  account  of  the  post-schools  is  given  for 
three  reasons :  — 

1.  The  public  are  almost  wholly  ignorant  of  the  ex- 
istence of  these  schools,  and  of  the  efforts  being  made 


APPENDIX.  433 

through  them  to  increase  the  intelligence  and  moral- 
ity of  the  army. 

2.  The  schools  themselves  are  important.     Of  course 
they,  and  all  the  related  appliances,  are  still  in  their 
infancy ;    but  experience  proves  conclusively  that  a 
foundation  was  laid  in  the  law  of  1866  for  incalculable 
good. 

Both  these  considerations  alone  would  not  justify 
the  space  here  given  to  the  subject,  or  even  a  mention. 
But  — 

3.  In  a  sense,  these  are  Garfield's  schools.     Speak- 
ing of  the  law  of  1866,  he  said  near  the  close  of  his 
life,  "That  is  one  of  my  things."     He  originated  the 
measure,  though  it  was  supported   by  General  R.  C. 
Schenck,  and  promptly  approved  by  House  and  Senate. 
His  interest  in  the  post-schools  continued  to  the  end. 
He  indorsed   Chaplain  Mullins  as  ' '  the  man  for  the 
work ;  "  and,  after  he  became  President,  told  him  that 
he  wished  him  to  remove  his  headquarters  to  Washing- 
ton.    He  assured  the  supervisor  that  he  should  have 
the  Executive's  earnest  co-operation  in  his  good  work. 


UNIVERSITY  of  CAUFORNl 

AT 

LUS  AN^KLES 
LlBKAKY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


•  '  "*     <-v     £    f**'<r( 


a* 


REC'D  tt 

onj3* 


Form  L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444 


J 


